4 ms·
In the 60s science fiction we had all those advanced aliens who had artifacts that were nearly indestructible, worked forever and could output tons of energy. T
by gambler 7y ago
In the 60s science fiction we had all those advanced aliens who had artifacts that were nearly indestructible, worked forever and could output tons of energy. That was our vision of "high-tech". In the 80s we got the idea that maybe advanced aliens would have "smart" devices that could adapt to their environment, repair themselves and be incredibly versatile.
In those decades SF technology has one thing in common, regardless of the specific narrative: it granted incredible agency to the person who wielded it.
We also constantly tell ourselves that out technology advances forward, sometimes outpacing science fiction... Except the actual properties of our technology "evolve" in the opposite direction. We now have devices that are low-power, utterly fragile and dependent on tons of external services.
Our real technology today takes our agency away. As the article points out, it's often deliberate.
I sometimes entertain the idea of making a web comic where people have science fiction tech (spaceships, tasers, AI) with all our current problems: glitches, constant updates, loss of functionality due to poor connectivity, DRM, incomprehensible setup procedures, etc.
- merpnderp 7y agoNothing stopping you from making your own brickish phone thingy that connects to lte, runs a powerful processor and has a huge battery. You could do it from commodity parts and it would be trivially reparable by slapping in bits you cheaply order off Amazon/New Egg. And compared to 1980, it would still be mind bogglingly sci-fi - it just wouldn't be as sleek and svelte as your new iPhone. But I do get your point. I do miss the days when my iPhone 4s would get horribly damaged, I'd order a part online, and a day later I have fixed it myself.
- chmod775 7y agoThat (kind of) phone already exists: https://www.fairphone.com/en/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/ It's pretty "brickish", but you can order replacement parts easily and service it yourself: https://shop.fairphone.com/en/spare-parts/ https://shop.fairphone.com/en/spare-parts/
- lostgame 7y ago>> Nothing stopping you from making your own brickish phone thingy that connects to lte, runs a powerful processor and has a huge battery But the real issue is what does it run? Android? Seems contrary to the point of building your own device. There has yet to be a serious Mobile OS in the FOSS world that’s not tied in to the evils of Google, and still has e.g. baseband or phone call support.
- merpnderp 7y agoI was envisioning basically and ultrabook set of hardware, so your favorite flavor of Linux would be the answer.
- chmod775 7y ago"I was watching Disney movies on my HUD yesterday and now the right arm of my nanotech exoskeleton is stuck in a boot loop. I knew installing the Disney+ application was a bad idea."
- DrAwdeOccarim 7y agoI'd read the comic. That sounds hilarious!
- n4r9 7y agoThat's true of a lot of sci fi, but the more imaginative authors foresaw many of the tensions and trade-offs between technology, commercialism and government. I have vague memories of Philip K Dick short stories in which consumers are egged on to never fix but repeatedly buy new versions of technologies, because the old ones are built with limited lifespans, or the new versions have some superficially attractive feature with dubious actual value. The story "Foster, you're dead!" springs to mind. Consumers are pressured into buying newer and newer bomb shelters in order to protect themselves from an imaginary enemy with constantly improving imaginary capabilities. The more general idea that advances in technology would remove agency from the masses feels quite old, you can see the seeds of it in Brave New World for example.
- v8engine 7y agoYou have a reader for the web comic idea. Reply here when available.