I think the Star Trek series - like most SF portrayals - play(ed) a useful role in displaying what the public's perception of the future is (was). Their take on e-paper has been particularly perplexing however.
In the Original Series (some people get upset if you don't use upper case letters) one of the first episodes showed the Captain (it might have been Pike, Kirk's predecessor) using a pad of paper attached to the console and a pen resembling those found in US banks, complete with little chain.
As the newer series came online, books resembled larger versions of today's electronic readers. What foxed me, was that in one scene for example, Miles O' Brien takes a half dozen or so of these readers, which are supposedly text-books, on a trip in his shuttle. Considering these guys have mini-storage devices that can hold programs simulating entire 3-D worlds for the holodeck, the books seemed like overkill, especially with the number of onboard viewing devices.
Data storage is always going to be a difficult mediumto portray in the future, because as we increase the amount of data we can store in a given physical space, we will always create a demand for more data, be it from text to images, to video, or from monochrome to milions of colors to color holography with 128 track sound.
Chiu's concept of corporatized unified government is hardly pioneering, with many SF stories portraying a glactic administration or post-nuclear city-state based along these lines.
Chiu betrays his inexperience of matters corporate and political as he promotes the supposed stability of such a system. He believes that being part of the whole prevents elements within the system from breaking away or mischief-making. Has he never heard of spin-outs, as management divisions seek to monetize their perceived value breaking away and forming their own money-making enterprise? Civil wars of secession also underline the potential pitfalls.
I personally think that some kind of supra-national government with teeth has a role to play provided that their is a common morality and system of values that serve as the foundation of such an administration in which the nation-states place the good of humanity above that of individual member's citizens. the problem with that though, is that nation-states very raison d'etre is their self-perpetuation and preservation.
As for Alex's murky concept of a master race which he claims he created, the true answer probably needs to be understood by watching the Pokemon DVD version of the previously untold story of Mew 2's creation. Understand Pokemon and only then can you understand man's ability to evolve physically, emotionally and spiritually, for better or worse.
Finally, as to the rings of power, there is a school of thought that believes that these rings are all feeble surrogate for a single ring of power that must be destroyed. This objective will only begin in earnest at the end of this year and will take three years to complete. Incidentally, do Chiu's rings have any decoder features on them?
I've tried Ask Jeeves and various search engines in my quest to identify movies I watched years ago on TV. I remember the plot and in some cases thought I knew the actors, but to no avail. I got a few suggestions on where to look, but none yielded results.
The other thing I wanted to find out was the meaning behind some of the early Spandau Ballet lyrics, especially the expression, "stealing cake to eat the moon". It was in vogue at my school but we all used it cryptically not really knowing what it meant. The band members on some site said that many of their lyrics were pretentious and didn't come from experience, so that didn't help...
I can't find a lot on foreign popular culture, for example, Chinese, Malay and Egyptian movies and songs from the 1950's. Some of the megastar names of the period only have a handful of entries.
Another thing missing is objective assessments of other companies' technologies and/or business models.
Actually things in the Third World are that bad. While it is true that in most of the large cities of the underdeveloped world, there is a sizeable and visible middle class capable of purchasing the items you mentioned, this class actually represents a very small size of the total population. Most of the population of China, India, Africa and vast swathes of Latin America is rural and literacy (computer or otherwise) is scant. A member of the local middle class would often have problems communicating in the national language with the less well-off of these people due to their rudimentary communication skills. It is another world entirely. I have lived in and/or worked in all of these places and have visited some of these "basket-case" areas. The locals tend to be concerned with staying alive and feeding themselves. Most wouldn't sell a computer to feed their family simply because they wouldn't recognize its value.
The record companies and artists have been pushing a model that while serving there own purposes, has a few inherent flaws as far as we, the consumers are concerned and they are gonna bite them in the ass.
We're made to buy whole albums when sometimes all we're interested in is the one decent tune. They sometimes selectively present us with the option to buy a single, usually at an inflated unit price, usually we have to buy the whole CD album. This system could be dictated to us because bootlegging from friends and making home-made compilation tapes were an arduous process resulting in a sub-par quality product. Gnutella and Napster changed all that. we became empowered.
Now I'm more than willing to pay something, maybe even up to a dollar or so to license the listening rights to a particular song, provided I could stick it on some digital format. This would lead me to buy many more songs I hear on the radio and on TV that I would never buy if I needed to put the whole album for $10 or $20. Artists will no longer have to wait until ten or twelve songs are available to release them and this would help many newer groups. Self-indulgent artists will also have to accept the fact that some of the works they hold so dear (the B-sides and non-singles) will not be downloaded and therefore financially recognized as often as they would like.
If people want CDs replete with liner notes, they have to buy them. I liken this to theater programs (which we pay for in Europe) or concert programs, which some people like to keep as a souvenir. Remixes should be paid for like new releases, which isn't too bad if it only costs a buck a download.
The current system reminds me in a way of a restaurant that only has set menus with no substitutions or changes. The sensitive little chef believes that his way is the only way to serve food. Well, give artists that choice. Sometimes albums are made to listen to in their entirety and not a collection of singles. But in that case, let artists face the market.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the Star Trek series - like most SF portrayals - play(ed) a useful role in displaying what the public's perception of the future is (was). Their take on e-paper has been particularly perplexing however. In the Original Series (some people get upset if you don't use upper case letters) one of the first episodes showed the Captain (it might have been Pike, Kirk's predecessor) using a pad of paper attached to the console and a pen resembling those found in US banks, complete with little chain. As the newer series came online, books resembled larger versions of today's electronic readers. What foxed me, was that in one scene for example, Miles O' Brien takes a half dozen or so of these readers, which are supposedly text-books, on a trip in his shuttle. Considering these guys have mini-storage devices that can hold programs simulating entire 3-D worlds for the holodeck, the books seemed like overkill, especially with the number of onboard viewing devices. Data storage is always going to be a difficult mediumto portray in the future, because as we increase the amount of data we can store in a given physical space, we will always create a demand for more data, be it from text to images, to video, or from monochrome to milions of colors to color holography with 128 track sound.
Chiu's concept of corporatized unified government is hardly pioneering, with many SF stories portraying a glactic administration or post-nuclear city-state based along these lines. Chiu betrays his inexperience of matters corporate and political as he promotes the supposed stability of such a system. He believes that being part of the whole prevents elements within the system from breaking away or mischief-making. Has he never heard of spin-outs, as management divisions seek to monetize their perceived value breaking away and forming their own money-making enterprise? Civil wars of secession also underline the potential pitfalls. I personally think that some kind of supra-national government with teeth has a role to play provided that their is a common morality and system of values that serve as the foundation of such an administration in which the nation-states place the good of humanity above that of individual member's citizens. the problem with that though, is that nation-states very raison d'etre is their self-perpetuation and preservation. As for Alex's murky concept of a master race which he claims he created, the true answer probably needs to be understood by watching the Pokemon DVD version of the previously untold story of Mew 2's creation. Understand Pokemon and only then can you understand man's ability to evolve physically, emotionally and spiritually, for better or worse. Finally, as to the rings of power, there is a school of thought that believes that these rings are all feeble surrogate for a single ring of power that must be destroyed. This objective will only begin in earnest at the end of this year and will take three years to complete. Incidentally, do Chiu's rings have any decoder features on them?
I've tried Ask Jeeves and various search engines in my quest to identify movies I watched years ago on TV. I remember the plot and in some cases thought I knew the actors, but to no avail. I got a few suggestions on where to look, but none yielded results. The other thing I wanted to find out was the meaning behind some of the early Spandau Ballet lyrics, especially the expression, "stealing cake to eat the moon". It was in vogue at my school but we all used it cryptically not really knowing what it meant. The band members on some site said that many of their lyrics were pretentious and didn't come from experience, so that didn't help... I can't find a lot on foreign popular culture, for example, Chinese, Malay and Egyptian movies and songs from the 1950's. Some of the megastar names of the period only have a handful of entries. Another thing missing is objective assessments of other companies' technologies and/or business models.
Actually things in the Third World are that bad. While it is true that in most of the large cities of the underdeveloped world, there is a sizeable and visible middle class capable of purchasing the items you mentioned, this class actually represents a very small size of the total population. Most of the population of China, India, Africa and vast swathes of Latin America is rural and literacy (computer or otherwise) is scant. A member of the local middle class would often have problems communicating in the national language with the less well-off of these people due to their rudimentary communication skills. It is another world entirely. I have lived in and/or worked in all of these places and have visited some of these "basket-case" areas. The locals tend to be concerned with staying alive and feeding themselves. Most wouldn't sell a computer to feed their family simply because they wouldn't recognize its value.
The record companies and artists have been pushing a model that while serving there own purposes, has a few inherent flaws as far as we, the consumers are concerned and they are gonna bite them in the ass. We're made to buy whole albums when sometimes all we're interested in is the one decent tune. They sometimes selectively present us with the option to buy a single, usually at an inflated unit price, usually we have to buy the whole CD album. This system could be dictated to us because bootlegging from friends and making home-made compilation tapes were an arduous process resulting in a sub-par quality product. Gnutella and Napster changed all that. we became empowered. Now I'm more than willing to pay something, maybe even up to a dollar or so to license the listening rights to a particular song, provided I could stick it on some digital format. This would lead me to buy many more songs I hear on the radio and on TV that I would never buy if I needed to put the whole album for $10 or $20. Artists will no longer have to wait until ten or twelve songs are available to release them and this would help many newer groups. Self-indulgent artists will also have to accept the fact that some of the works they hold so dear (the B-sides and non-singles) will not be downloaded and therefore financially recognized as often as they would like. If people want CDs replete with liner notes, they have to buy them. I liken this to theater programs (which we pay for in Europe) or concert programs, which some people like to keep as a souvenir. Remixes should be paid for like new releases, which isn't too bad if it only costs a buck a download. The current system reminds me in a way of a restaurant that only has set menus with no substitutions or changes. The sensitive little chef believes that his way is the only way to serve food. Well, give artists that choice. Sometimes albums are made to listen to in their entirety and not a collection of singles. But in that case, let artists face the market.