iPad vs. PADD

Picture taken from http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD

One of the web comics I read recently compared the iPad to the PADD (from Star Trek).  They point out that while, in form, the iPad moves closer and closer to the ideal that is the PADD, in function it is moving in the opposite direction.  For those of you who don’t know what the PADD is, it is essentially a touch screen tablet, no larger than a sheet of paper, that is an extended interface for the ship’s computer.  No matter where you are in the ship, this thing works as a full blown computer.  Put in terms of modern computing, it is a thin client that connects wirelessly to its terminal server.  I hadn’t really thought about the iPad from this perspective before, but it makes sense.  An Apple Tablet has been rumored for years, and when they finally come out with one, its basically an iPhone with a larger screen.  In my opinion, what this is doing to personal computing is dumbing it down.  While I understand that this is supposed to make computing and using the Internet more accessible for those who don’t already, is it necessary to make a device that can’t be used outside a very narrow band of scenarios tightly controlled by Apple?  Apple could have done such great things with this and just fell short.  My grand idea can be considered an extension of “target” mode in OSX.  With nearly every Mac, you can boot it into a mode where it acts as an external HD for another Mac called target mode.  Why not make an iPad target mode, where you boot your iPad up and it is just an extension of another computer on your network?  That way you can use a more powerful computer to do things, but with the mobility of the iPad.