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> The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became
by kevincox 3y ago
> The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.
By Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoCan people please stop implementing ideas that were intended as satire?
- drewzero1 3y agoOr as social criticism! A lot of tech giants seem to be trying to bring about the techno-future of scifi and completely missing the point that a lot of it is a dystopian hellscape serving as a thin veil over commentary on contemporary society.
- ChainOfFools 3y agoThe sense that you're being asked, or coerced, to participate in realizing someone's shallow, misunderstood, but aggressively peddled reading of a dystopian social commentary fantasy scenario is very near to the heart of what makes tech bro culture so obnoxious for everyone else.
- MR4D 3y agoNo. That's the only way we know we're in a simulation. Reality could never be this stupid.
- Silasdev 3y agoDid Douglas Adams travel in time.... this is scarily accurate!!! My BMW keeps turning off the volume if I wave at anything in the direction of the touchscreen. There is a little infrared camera near the roof that can sense hand-gestures and turn volume up or down ... and lots of other things. Douglas Adams so spot on I want to cry!
- papichulo4 3y agoUm, hello friend. Turn gesture controls off. It's in the settings.
- graphe 3y agoYou did buy a car without a dipstick, what do you expect? BMWs are fun to drive and are horrible too maintain. I remember helping someone because the radiator melted a reservoir tank, such a terrible design I never looked at another one!! They should need forced to make dipsticks but the EU doesn't care when it's a European company. The EU is more anti American companies than actually caring.