1072
(page 4) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago

When I was a kid, Commander Data from Star Trek TNG was the height of technological possibility. TNG was set in the 2300s.

It looks like hard drives are selling for about 20 bucks a terabyte now. Commander Data had a storage capacity of 100 petabytes.

So today, to buy hard drives equivalent to the capacity Commander Data would cost about $2 million. You would have to be very wealthy to afford that as an individual, but the cost will only get lower. It will still be quite awhile before a random laptop will have a Commander Data's worth of storage space. But you're talking decades, not centuries.

Though, this calculation is for the Data that appeared in the original TNG run. His more recent appearance in Star Trek Picard may be different, as his specifications there may canonically differ.

This calculation was only meant to detail the capacity of the original Commander Data, not the more recent Big Data.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

I like to re-read my favorite science fiction classics and giggle at the author's mistakes.

In "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" a self-aware computer struggles over creating a CGI face for him/herself. Also, iirc, the computer uses tape.

William Gibson has done essays about how much he got wrong in 'Neuromancer," but my personal favorite is the spaceship pilot who never heard of a computer virus.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

My favorites are in Asimov. In the Foundation series, one product the traders sell is a nuclear powered ash tray. They employ advanced nuclear plasma manipulation to...quickly atomize cigarette butts.

Or the time there's this couple. They are traveling to another planet, and they get aboard their personal interstellar spaceship. The society is advanced enough, that that is just something you can own.

What happens as soon as they get onboard their personal FTL interstellar ship? The husband commands his wife to get dinner started.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

They employ advanced nuclear plasma manipulation to…quickly atomize cigarette butts.

You have a powerful computer you use to look at cat memes.

I hate to be brutal, but you forced me to take extreme measures

jk

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

8th grade teacher got pissed at us on 9/11 because he thought we were laughing at the fact that a plane had hit the WTC. We were laughing because one of the girls didn't know what the WTC was. We turned on the TVs to see the second one get hit.

6th grade we had napster while some of us were still bringing in cases of floppies to play games that'd run on the computers

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

9/11 was high school for me, Columbine mass shooting was around the same time. I went from end of cold war get under your desk drills in early grade school to a few years with no drills aside from tornado, to ending high school with active shooter drills.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 11 points 1 day ago

The elders had to rewind the movies after watching

[-] courageousstep@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

I still own a VCR and a vast collection of VHS tapes. I mean, I also pay for streaming services, but without the old 90s commercials for Disney World and previews for movies that were released in 1995, the movies just don’t hit the same.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)

If only the pace of technology was the only paradigm shift to have to worry about since the 80s/90s

[-] Montagge@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

This post makes my knees hurt

[-] crawancon@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

hold up now.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Wait… what happened to people born in 1989 that didn’t to those born in 1991???

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
1072 points (97.3% liked)

People Twitter

6443 readers
1497 users here now

People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.

RULES:

  1. Mark NSFW content.
  2. No doxxing people.
  3. Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
  4. No bullying or international politcs
  5. Be excellent to each other.
  6. Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS