this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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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?

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 4 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Look at the size of those bevels

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Bezels..?

Auto correct is dumb

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Yeah, bezels. It was autocorrect, totally.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Having to voice commands to the computer. “Computer” will be part of the neural sync.

Also, typing anything or the use of buttons.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also, typing anything or the use of buttons.

I think drivers of newer cars are discovering that buttons can be a good thing sometimes.

[–] AppleTea 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

They also rely on less muscle memory, which could be a problem with a touchscreen if you're just marginally misaligned without realizing it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

You have to use your hands. Like a baby’s toy?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

It's already a stupid idea and concept today.

This is some interesting thought on how space battle and interstellar war would be fought.

https://youtu.be/tybKnGZRwcU

https://youtu.be/Z-dQbKaKNEY

https://youtu.be/9Xs3mGhQGxM

https://youtu.be/9Xs3mGhQGxM

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean it's not the best way to travel, but there have never been more cruise ship passengers than today.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Weirdly shaped starships.

  • Why wouldn’t they be mass-symmetrical around the propulsion?
  • why are some vertically oriented? Are these people constantly using elevators?
  • what’s with this saucer on a sausage thing ? There’s a lot of inefficiencies in building, maintaining, and using the ship.
  • If there is ever a time when a Starship can fly in an atmosphere, there’s going to have to consider aerodynamics
[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Where do you think they would put a bowling alley for those long extended away missions that last for months?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

* faxes in German

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

May still want to stay off the White.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

that looked like a fax machine

Looks like nobody knows what a computer terminal looks like nowadays...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I really doubt flying a spaceship will ever just be sitting in a bucket seat with a screen of touch controls

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Yeah: It'll be your brain in a jar (or just stored digitally) and you'll just get a new body 3D printed when you arrive at your destination... After landing.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Has anyone noticed the lack of trash cans in Star Trek? I guess they finally solved all the trash problems in the future...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (9 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

We are all Tasha on this blessed day

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