Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Page Quote Pickin'
, started by BooleanEarth on Aug 26th 2011 at 2:55:00 AM
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused, started by Larkmarn on Mar 20th 2014 at 9:52:48 PM
People did think about the internet and versions of it appeared in science fiction. I even saw a 50's video on youtube that was showing a house of the future, and in it there was a system basically like the internet is today.
I'd also say we have supercomputers, holographic T Vs just came out, primative virtual reality, the japanese keep pushing robot buddies nobody seems to really want, and we're just starting to seriously deploy laser weapons. It's also arguable that multi-vitamins, protein drinks, and powerbars are our equivalent of food cubes.
A moon colony would have been feasible within that timeframe if we hadn't become completely apathetic about the whole space thing.
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Slan by A E Van Vogt in 1940 had a general computer system on Mars called the Stics. In one scene Joanna Hillary deleted or changed the entry on John Thomas Cross. Not only was there an Internet, but people were already making wiki entries!
Because in many cases, a technology HAS advanced, just not in the way we expected it to. For some people, that's been a disappointment. For others, even better. I, for one, thought drivers would be able to more easily fine-tune cars to their needs and have more control. Instead, we got unnecessarily complex electronics with "no user serviceable parts." WE, techically, the number of thing you had to fix went down, because you have to take it to the dealer for every little thing. I suppose people who don't know a screwdriver from a wrench think it's a good thing that the mechanic can hook the car up to a computer and know what's wrong in a few minutes instead of wasting hours of trial and error. But there's a lot of handymen that won't work on engines made after the ECU requirements went into effect because they're not consumer serviceable anymore. I never though in my wildest nightmares that we would have cars that could yank the seatbelts tight whenever they "thought" (and being generous to say cars "think") without so much as a "by your leave," but enough people thought this was a good thing that it's now standard.
"Long-running British science documentary show Tomorrow's World tried to showcase current trends in scientific discovery, design, and practical applications for that science, to predict what we might be using and buying a couple of years in the future. It ran for twenty-odd years and possibly thousands of inventions, and the most anyone can remember is that it successfully predicted sat-nav fifteen years ahead of time."
Well, maybe that and presenter Judith Hann's nipples while she was explaining some scientific advance whilst standing in a rather cold swimming pool..... for a fourteen year old boy waiting for Top of the Pops and Pan's People (ask your parents) this was like bonus time. Judith could out-Dimmock Charlie...
Edited by AgPrv
Deleted the spoiler on the xkcd example. Folks, it makes absolutely no sense to spoiler an entire example, because that makes it impossible for the reader to know if they should read it or not.
Also, what was spoiled really wasn't much of a spoiler anyway.
Edited by Arivne
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