So, 10 years before the first personal computer, we have this: Opposite his chair was a stereovision tank disguised as an aquarium; he switched it on, guppies and tetras gave way to the face of the well-known Winchell Augustus Greaves. So Kirk was frequently confronted with the problem of whipping out his communicator and finding "no bars" in his reception, be it through some magnetic nova storm or interdimensional interference. Wells had already written a novel about it, 's The World Set Free.