From: Darin Sunley (dsunley@shaw.ca)
Date: Tue May 14 2002 - 13:52:38 MDT
> On Tue, 14 May 2002, Darin Sunley wrote:
>
> > Babylon 5 uses low-grade nanotech, keyed to the wearer's DNA, to make
> > the communicator stick to the owner's hand. (And only the owner's
>
Eugen Leitl responded:
> Thanks for reminding me why I never watch Star Drek. What an absurdly
> inconsistent (nevermind in this case idiotic -- biometrics instead of
> crypto) application of advanced technology, leaving everything else a
> constant.
Well, in fairness to B5, humans are depicted as a relatively low-tech
culture, surrounded by [slightly] higher tech cultures who do seem to use
tech more realistically than we do [though that is probably just an artifact
of being more mysterious and having less screen time]. All of our higher
technology is explicitly stated as having been purchased from these aliens.
Maybe they didn't sell us nanoware that could do anything other than cheap
biometrics? Would YOU sell humanity nanoware that could do anything
dangerous? :)
Full agreement on everything else tho. The technology tree in modern sci-fi
is hopelessly pessimistic. Even in B5, aliens with millions of years of
development on us look and act like tribal cavemen compared to a Vingean
Power.
The Borg fit much better into the Star Trek universe before the writers gave
them nanotech. Before that, they were advanced [relative to the rest of the
Star Trek universe], but not ridiculously so. With nanotech, they just
became, hmmmm, anachronistic? [That word doesn't feel quite right, but I
don't knwo a better one.] Inconsistent. Nanotech doesn't fit in Star Trek,
it's way too advanced. The same way modern personal computers and PDAs don't
fit into the 60s TV series. We've done better with computer technology in 30
years than they expeced us to do in 300.
A similar thing happened in Star Wars. Granted it explicitly disavows any
connection to the "real world", but I'm pretty sure, that when Lucas was
writing about "The Clone Wars" in 1975, he wasn't expecting us to be
actually MAKING clones by the time he got around to filming them. If he'd
waited another 30 years [CRNS (current rate, no singularity)] he could
probably have just cast real clones :)
Darin Sunley
dsunley@shaw.ca
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