bernardZ <BernardZ@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <47892d13$0$85785$e4fe514c@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, mcvmcv@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> says...
>> bealoid <signup@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> >
>> > Any storage media in movies looks a bit odd to me - floppy disks look
>> > really old, but even standard optical media (which could be some form
of
>> > 'super DVD') look old fa****oned. Using a smaller size optical media
>> > doesn't help either.
>>
>> I thought they usually used some sort of crystal as storage medium.
>> The problem is that it's usually a small, ****d crystal with no
>> obvious place to stick a label.
>>
>> While reading Asimov's _Second Foundation_, the book proudly described
>> a really clever system that made it really easy for relatively
untrained
>> people to figure out exactly where in the galaxy they are. Before the
>> invention of that item, figuring out your location took days or weeks,
>> but all I was thinking was: if this process is this simple, why the
>> hell isn't it automated in the first place?
>>
>> Science fiction almost always falls short when it comes to computers
>> and automation.
>
> Why?
>
> In the days of sailing ****ps to navigate you used dead reckoning. It was
> accurate. However it took much work. Always you needed to have skilled
> people on-the-job recording your speed and direction. Then the figures
> had to be tabulated. It was simple but complex to do. Then Harrison came
> up with a clock.
Exactly. The invention of accurate clocks and, more relevantly, computers
makes time-consuming navigation by hand obsolete. Nowadays nobody uses
Harrison's clock; it's GPS now. If you've got a big database of spectral
signatures of all major stars and a good way to match them with actual
stars you see (as is the case in Second Foundation), it's silly to still
have to match them up by hand. Have a computer do that.
But like I said, SF tends to fall short when it comes to computers and
automation. Unless AIs are involved, ofcourse.
mcv.
--
Science is not the be-all and end-all of human existence. It's a tool.
A very powerful tool, but not the only tool. And if only that which
could be verified scientifically was considered real, then nearly all
of human experience would be not-real. -- Zachriel
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