Since the early 19th century, humans have expressed the idea of a mechanical device capable of speech in fiction, through authors like Jules Verne and later H.G. Wells. By the mid-20th century in fiction, we had moved from "Ulla, Ulla" to machines that were capable of talking back (text to speech) and understanding speech (transcription). Today, we are surrounded by mechanical devices that have made the vision of Roddenberry and others come to life whether prefaced with "Computer," "Siri," or "Alexa" the result is a device that understands the basics of what you ask it like requests for weather or a piece of music.