6 ms·
I have to say I was much more taken with the description of computers in the books. Maybe it was more me projecting than what was actually there, but what I too
by Grumbledour 5y ago
I have to say I was much more taken with the description of computers in the books. Maybe it was more me projecting than what was actually there, but what I took away from it were computer systems that worked without networking most of the time, were fault tolerant and had most of their power through programmability, which ordinary people were able to access.
This reminded me so much of the ideas and visions of early computing environments and even though the books don't dwell much on computers, I found it really fascinating to see these echos there.
In comparison, the visual design of the show is just ... nice? But seems honestly pretty impracticable most of the time and I felt doesn't really set itself apart from other contemporary Sci-fi Shows.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoNear the end of Cibola Burn, there was this part that gave some extra details about the hand terminals they use. I almost cried when reading it. A computer that's designed to work off-line just as well as on-line, that can form mesh networks with other hand terminals on the fly when needed, not tied to any specific vendor in any particular way. It's how smartphones should obviously work, except they don't, because real humanity is shitty in so many subtle ways in which even most dystopian sci-fi humanity isn't.
- sprkwd 5y agoWell, that's something wonderful to aim for.
- meowster 5y agoThat's how the computers work in Neal Stephenson's Seveneves too. It serves a purpose in the story.
- salawat 5y agoWelcome to what happens when the common network and routing infrastructure is privately owned. Proprietary standards. Subscriber ident, discriminatory "I will/won't service you today" sets the tone for how things work. Mesh interop is more than doable. It just ain't profitable, nor is it desirable from the centralized controllability perspective.
- nynx 5y agoYeah, I felt the same way. I think, however, that smartphones will change as humanity spreads out a bit. On mars, a smartphone will need to deal with only local servers. On deep space, it'll need to mesh network with surrounding devices. Needs drive innovation.
- obelos 5y agoSeveral times while watching the show I’ve had my suspension of disbelief interrupted by thinking “There’s no way all these computers would interoperate so seamlessly, without vendor walled gardens and layers of security constraints.” It is a nice vision of an impossible future!