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In The Original Series in the 60s, people had no idea what the future would look like or what technology would look like. In one of the early episodes, they had a paper print out machine on the bridge that looked like a fax machine, which was considered futuristic in the 1960s.
Like the example of the Enterprise fax machine, what technology or system do you think are we displaying in the current Star Trek shows that will show how dated we will become in the future?
Single Use Padds:
At first I thought PADDS were dumb as fuck.
Now though, I switch between phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, all the time.
I sometimes hand a device to someone else to show what I'm talking about, then grab a different device to continue what I was doing.
Coming from the mainframe era (which TNG did, PCs were just starting to become known to the average person when production started), it made sense. And today we have virtually the same thing if we choose - keep the data elsewhere, portable device is just an access point.
Sometimes it's just easier to hand someone a screen, and if they're simple to produce, why not?
Yeah, but they do go overboard at times. There's more than one instance where someone has a box full of PADDs with different info on each.
Yea, but that probably has more to do with replicator technology. Why interrupt your work on one PADD to check something or work on a related document "in another window" when you can replicate another one easily
I suppose, but they don't look organized or anything in the scenes I'm talking about. I wish I could remember the episodes or even series where this has happened, but it's happened more than once. Someone says they have to study something and they have a big, disorganized crate full of PADDs.
When I'm dealing with sets of documents, my desk doesn't look organized. I can easily see that happening if I replaced books with PADDs.
Ah yea, but this is a post-paper world, that box of PADDs would be what would today be a box of papers and books.
My headcanon has been that many of those PADDs are 1-time use read only devices that can't have the data copied, transferred, altered or deleted. When they're done, they just get resynthesized. They could be for classified data, secure reports, and so on. If it's just reading a couple duty shift reports, they are the small simple PADDs with scroll buttons. Intelligence reports on the sector, would have different levels of interactive bottoms on the sides. Potential prototype vessel upgrades, more space, more interactive features, and so on.
Alternate interpretation: Starfleet's mobile device UI isn't great for managing multiple documents that you quickly switch between. Everyone defaults to using multiple PADDs because they're not going to see a major revision of LCARS anytime soon.
(Also, they're free and easily obtained, just go to a replicator.)
because they’re not going to see a major revision of LCARS anytime soon.
I just realized the logistical support nightmare that would be. It has to support written language and cultural context for all Federation species without breaking UI/UX. It would also have to produce legible output for all those different vision systems, which could run the gamut of what's "visible" light frequencies, contrast, brightness, and suitable magnification. Once your software engineering dream-team solves all that, you don't change it. Ever. My head canon here is that LCARS is ugly and clunky, but is a compromise that everyone can manage to suffer through.
I find it amusing that a console featuring tangible buttons and lights with fixed positions, as seen on the original Enterprise, might actually be the better answer here.
Look at the size of those bevels
Bezels..?
Auto correct is dumb
Yeah, bezels. It was autocorrect, totally.
Hey, we're getting there lol. If you count things like RFID tags (which have circuitry and microcontrollers embedded), we have plenty of disposable, single-use tech.
There is definitely lots of single use tech in use today, but I'm more referring to IPAD/Tablet like things that seem to be single use in Trek shows.
Pretty sure they used single use PADDs to bridge the meaning of paperwork to the digital age.
What for example screams being busy more? A bunch paper stacks/PADDs or just a single PADD?
I don't think they're single use like you'd throw them away or anything. I think they use multiple PADDs so they can hold and interact and look at multiple documents at the same time.
In a post scarcity setting, it makes sense. Sometimes I like having multiple paper documents in front of me, and that feels like the equivalent.
Having to voice commands to the computer. “Computer” will be part of the neural sync.
Also, typing anything or the use of buttons.
Also, typing anything or the use of buttons.
I think drivers of newer cars are discovering that buttons can be a good thing sometimes.
Yeah, if anything the TOS ships are more realistic in regard to their interfaces. In an emergency, when you may not have lights or gravity or whatever, buttons and knobs come with certainty. Flat, featureless touchscreens? Not so much.
They also rely on less muscle memory, which could be a problem with a touchscreen if you're just marginally misaligned without realizing it.
You have to use your hands. Like a baby’s toy?
Direct-fire ship-to-ship weapons. Modern war is more and more about missiles, drones, etc. I think in the future the idea of ships coming near each-other and shooting directly will seem really old-fashioned, even if they are using space lasers.
It's already a stupid idea and concept today.
This is some interesting thought on how space battle and interstellar war would be fought.
My guess is .... big giant spaceships
I think that future tech will have much smaller craft or technology to move people from one star system to another.
The giant starships we highlight in the shows today will be looked at in the future in the same way we look at people in the 1900s who thought that big giant cruise ships over the ocean would be the best way to travel around the world in the future.
I mean it's not the best way to travel, but there have never been more cruise ship passengers than today.
The concept of cruise ships to another star was done really well with this book, which I highly recommend if you can find a copy:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/388947.The_Transgalactic_Guide_to_Solar_System_M_17
Here's the cruise ship:
A luxury hotel:
And where would you be without entertainment?
Even skipping the point of travelling between star systems in the future, as that is highly doubtful at best, that's not a principle I subscribe to.
It's usually way more economical to go for scale rather than individualism, let's look at some examples.
Travelling by bus or train is way cheaper and more efficient than travelling by car. Travelling by cruise ship/ferry is way cheaper and more efficient than getting your own boat. Travelling by passenger plane is way cheaper and more efficient than travelling by business jet which in turn is more efficient than getting your own little plane, which might not even be able to get you where you want to go.
Generally, especially when involving long distances and the material needs associated with it, having a big enough vessel to share the costs and limit the need to restock (en route) to a minimum.
Bar safety, logistical and cost concerns, we could already cram a nuclear reactor in a car or a bus. We don't because it simply doesn't make sense.
I see no reason why that logic wouldn't apply to some magical device that would enable interstellar travel, even if it would be able to instantly teleport you to your location without having enormous energy requirements.
Weirdly shaped starships.
Where do you think they would put a bowling alley for those long extended away missions that last for months?
The fax machine is forever. There's a fax machine on the International Space Station.
Okay, I'm joking. But I bet you considered it for half a second, because fax machines have been that damn hard to get rid of.
cries in German
* faxes in German
The choice of drugs. Star Trek is all about alcohol (often alien alcohol) and caffeine (sometimes alien coffee). Any time any other drug is shown / mentioned, it's because it's a big enough problem to be a plot point. I think 20 years from now, a few light drugs, including marijuana, will be so common that it will seem strange that they're not part of society in the 23rd century.
that looked like a fax machine
Looks like nobody knows what a computer terminal looks like nowadays...
I really doubt flying a spaceship will ever just be sitting in a bucket seat with a screen of touch controls
Purely in-person meetings, or pure 1-1 video calls. In modern offices, we're seeing more of a hybrid setup where some people in the meeting are in a room together, and other people are joining remotely. My guess is that in the future
Like, if Geordi La Forge leaves the Jeffries tube to attend an in-person meeting instead of joining in remotely so that he can keep working the problem while keeping everyone updated, that will seem really weird.
Has anyone noticed the lack of trash cans in Star Trek? I guess they finally solved all the trash problems in the future...
It's mentioned a few times, replicators can work "in reverse". They'll put in trash, dirty dishes, old clothes, whatever is no longer needed back in for the replicator to break back down into energy for later use
