3 ms·

Is it why in Stargate advanced alien computer/memory is from a crystal?

by zakki 2y ago

taneq 2y ago
Nope, that's because glowy crystalline or glassy things look super fancy and futuristically high tech.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  There was also a certain amount of hype about 3d optical data storage at the time. In practice, this is at this point more or less a dead issue, but it was very much The Future in the 90s. Also shows up in Star Trek TNG and on.
  - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
    Why is it dead
    - ben_w 2y ago
      Flash and streaming. Flash because it's cheap enough, high density, arbritarily scalable for whatever storage is needed. Streaming because the difficulty making any optical rewritable (especially with respect to write speed) meant the niche overlapped with bluray and DVD, but why bother with yet another optical disk for films and games when bandwidth becomes more important than single-disk capacity. There's also a bunch of technical difficulties, but when there's no market for the result, R&D efforts are often less well funded: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage
    - rsynnott 2y ago
      Some combo of flash and spinning rust storage really makes the market for very high capacity optical storage a bit niche. It might still have a place as archival media (and multi-layer optical disks, which are 3d optical storage of a sort, though not to the level of sophistication imagined in the 90s, are used in that role to some extent), but it's just really hard to see it rivalling flash for mainstream applications at this point. In particular, flash is really, really, _really_ fast.
- ben_w 2y ago
  And make for nice props that show up well on a 90s CRT, and they fit the Stargate aesthetic that lifted many 60s hippy occultist ideas including both "pyramids are too advanced, space aliens must have built them"[0] and "crystal skull has psychic powers"[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F (hmm, even the book name sounds like two SG-1 episode titles, pilot and when thrmey meet Thor) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull

Is it why in Stargate advanced alien computer/memory is from a crystal?

by zakki 2y ago

Is it why in Stargate advanced alien computer/memory is from a crystal?

taneq 2y ago

Nope, that's because glowy crystalline or glassy things look super fancy and futuristically high tech.

rsynnott 2y ago
There was also a certain amount of hype about 3d optical data storage at the time. In practice, this is at this point more or less a dead issue, but it was very much The Future in the 90s. Also shows up in Star Trek TNG and on.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Why is it dead
  - ben_w 2y ago
    Flash and streaming. Flash because it's cheap enough, high density, arbritarily scalable for whatever storage is needed. Streaming because the difficulty making any optical rewritable (especially with respect to write speed) meant the niche overlapped with bluray and DVD, but why bother with yet another optical disk for films and games when bandwidth becomes more important than single-disk capacity. There's also a bunch of technical difficulties, but when there's no market for the result, R&D efforts are often less well funded: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    Some combo of flash and spinning rust storage really makes the market for very high capacity optical storage a bit niche. It might still have a place as archival media (and multi-layer optical disks, which are 3d optical storage of a sort, though not to the level of sophistication imagined in the 90s, are used in that role to some extent), but it's just really hard to see it rivalling flash for mainstream applications at this point. In particular, flash is really, really, _really_ fast.
ben_w 2y ago
And make for nice props that show up well on a 90s CRT, and they fit the Stargate aesthetic that lifted many 60s hippy occultist ideas including both "pyramids are too advanced, space aliens must have built them"[0] and "crystal skull has psychic powers"[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F (hmm, even the book name sounds like two SG-1 episode titles, pilot and when thrmey meet Thor) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull