Good Vibrations~!

[Legbreaker]

It's really just evidence of how useless we are at predicting what technology will do even a decade or so from now. Think back to 1995 or even 2000. How many of us would believe half the stuff that's taken for granted today!?

[M-Type]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's really just evidence of how useless we are at predicting what technology will do even a decade or so from now. Think back to 1995 or even 2000. How many of us would believe half the stuff that's taken for granted today!?

I hear ya. My dad and I get Popular Science, and I love to read their articles where they look back at their own articles from the 40s-50s to see how close they got to certain modern devices.

Some things are eerily accurate, while others are quite laughable.

[Panther Al]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's really just evidence of how useless we are at predicting what technology will do even a decade or so from now. Think back to 1995 or even 2000. How many of us would believe half the stuff that's taken for granted today!?

Totally agree - I think no one saw the change the mobile phone was going to make, especially as computers kept getting smaller and smaller and turning into smartphones.

I think if some one looks back to the 95-15 era, they will probably come to the conclusion that it was the humble camera cell phone that was the biggest, most influential invention of the period.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Anyway, I think this new group - should we get a chance to actually play - will find the "alt-world" pretty interesting.

One thing about pervasive computing: a LOT of it was predicated on the demilitarization of the internet and supporting technologies. Its no mystery as to why suddenly from 1992 until now it seems like there has been an exponential leap in what we can do with computers not just in terms of local technology but with communications, to the point that consumer technology has lapped military tech and COTS is now the rule of the game in the face of an ever-shrinking military budget: the end of the cold war gave birth to a vastly more open internet, and once those technologies were in place it was Katie bar the door!

However, in T2k, that never happens. 1992 sees a USSR just as immovable and belligerent as always; there is no want cause or need for the US Military to open the floodgates of the Internet to even benign developers like Tim Berners-Lee, et al. Oh, sure, there were already "social websites" (for lack of a better term) in place with CompuServe, BIX, GENie, and so on, but the degree of consumer-level networking that we saw even back in the mid 90s is nowhere to be found in the Twilight:2000 universe. I would say its alternate-setting computing would be that individual workstation/desktop PCs would be more-or-less the same, just with less emphasis on networking them - why fiddle around with an ethernet card for your PC or laptop when there's jack-all to do with them save LAN stuff? And in the mid 90s most of that is all still do-able via sneakernet anyway.

[CarolG]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's really just evidence of how useless we are at predicting what technology will do even a decade or so from now. Think back to 1995 or even 2000. How many of us would believe half the stuff that's taken for granted today!?

I become amuse at a lot of the anachronisms in old S.F. One of my current favorites is in Startide Rising by Brin where information is faxed to another part of the ship as the fastest method of transmission.
As a player, I at times have had to stop and think about what technology would have been available to us.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I was reading SLAN, by A.E. van Vogt (winner of the "Weirdest Old-School Sci-Fi Author's Name" award 40 years running) and there was a google-like service whereby a person would make an information request via televisor (very high-tech!)...aaand then a printout of the request was brought via courier to the requester, taking mere hours :P

[Targan]

Originally Posted by CarolG

I become amuse at a lot of the anachronisms in old S.F. One of my current favorites is in Startide Rising by Brin where information is faxed to another part of the ship as the fastest method of transmission.
As a player, I at times have had to stop and think about what technology would have been available to us.

I'm a huge David Brin fan and loved Startide Rising and all the novels in that series but I'd forgotten those tech details! I might have to re-read it...