Poor Use of Technology
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 6:55PM I've been watching ABC's Defying Gravity aka Grey's Anatomy in space. It's set in 2052 and there's generally speaking some ok stuff in there. But there's some fracking annoying stuff. Firstly, the engineering tech level appears to have frozen sometime in 2010 - and I'm not talking about spacecraft design, that's actually the least annoying bit.
My problem is with technology that I KNOW is going to be different in 40 years from now.
There was a scene last night where the new core of engineers are training, this will be sometime in 2047/48 - I'd be 80ish - lovely and the lead astronaut is going to give a talk on engine subsystems. Except the schematic on the board is the wrong one, so, due to one thing and another he has to root through a pile of PAPER schematics for the right one before giving up in frustration.
HELLO?!? McFly! Hello! 2047? Paper schematics for training purposes at a space flight centre?
Hell, I wouldn't expect that in 2009 - most of the places I goto now have smart white boards with direct links to a computer - by 2020 that'll be old hat, the micro-OLED projectors I saw at MWC this year were already enough that your phone could project an image that you could start to manipulate with your hands.
Listen to me ABC - in 40 years time people will not be training a team by pinning a A0 size drawing to a cork board and talking them through it.
Ok?
Geez.
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Reader Comments (2)
I hear you, except I've been hearing about the paperless office for 20+ years now, and I haven't seen it yet.
Also, and somewhat tangental to your note, I do think paper is a vital emergency backup. When the engine is cold and dark and you're 50 gazillion miles from home, having a paper checklist can be priceless.
Well, I can't disagree with a paper backup. But even now in most office situations I'm in I'll find projectors and electronic white boards that interact with a PC.
I'll be honest and admit I'm still a luddite with reading stuff on paper. OTOH I do see people younger than me using the PC exclusively.