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  • the machine stops

    From August Abolins@2:221/1.58 to Everyone.. on Sun Jul 7 22:39:00 2019
    Hello All,

    I know we're all busy imagining ways of making Fidonet better, pondering
    its future, or just trying to enjoy the summer weather. Meanwhile..

    I just discovered and finished reading EM Forster's "The Machine Stops". It's a sci-fi short story/novella. It is set in a world where humanity
    lives underground and relies on "the machine" for all its needs. It
    predicts instant messaging and the internet; that's pretty interesting for something published 110 years ago.

    A short story by Mark Twain in 1898 (published in 1904) might even contain
    an earlier imaginging of the internet or social media in greater detail.
    But I haven't read that one, yet.


    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.39
    * Origin: /|ug's Point, Ont. CANADA (2:221/1.58)
  • From Tony Langdon@3:633/410 to August Abolins on Mon Jul 8 15:34:00 2019
    On 07-07-19 22:39, August Abolins wrote to Everyone.. <=-

    I just discovered and finished reading EM Forster's "The Machine
    Stops". It's a sci-fi short story/novella. It is set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on "the machine" for all its
    needs. It predicts instant messaging and the internet; that's pretty interesting for something published 110 years ago.

    It's amazing how prophetic some science fiction was, when written at a time long before we even looked like having the means to create the technology.

    A short story by Mark Twain in 1898 (published in 1904) might even
    contain an earlier imaginging of the internet or social media in
    greater detail. But I haven't read that one, yet.

    Looks like some reading coming up. :)


    ... Don't hit me, Mr. Moderator... I'll go back on topic... I swear!
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    --- SBBSecho 3.03-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)
  • From August Abolins@2:221/1.58 to Tony Langdon on Mon Jul 8 20:04:00 2019
    Hello Tony!

    ** 08.07.19 - 15:34, Tony Langdon wrote to August Abolins:

    It's amazing how prophetic some science fiction was, when written at a
    time long before we even looked like having the means to create the
    technology.

    Yes.. you said it spot on with "long before we even looked like having the means to create the technology". It would have been interesting to know
    what spurred those visions and if there was anything else they could
    share.

    My adventure began when I wondered what was the earliest vision of
    internet documented anywhere.


    A short story by Mark Twain in 1898 (published in 1904) might even
    contain an earlier imaginging of the internet or social media in
    greater detail. But I haven't read that one, yet.

    Looks like some reading coming up. :)

    Regarding Twain, look for the sci-fi crime story entitled "From The
    'London Times' in 1904". It actually depicts internet and social media
    usage very close to how we use it today.


    ... Don't hit me, Mr. Moderator... I'll go back on topic... I swear!

    This place is for the discussion of future technology (albiet how it might
    be applied to fidonet)

    Maybe we can use a Forster or a Twain here! LOL


    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.39
    * Origin: /|ug's Point, Ont. CANADA (2:221/1.58)
  • From Tony Langdon@3:633/410 to August Abolins on Tue Jul 9 20:29:00 2019
    On 07-08-19 20:04, August Abolins wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

    Yes.. you said it spot on with "long before we even looked like having
    the means to create the technology". It would have been interesting to know what spurred those visions and if there was anything else they
    could share.

    I've done it myself, though I never wrote about it. In the 80s, I imagines having a portable music player with no moving parts, simply using some sort of memory chips to store the music data. And today, they're everywhere. :)

    My adventure began when I wondered what was the earliest vision of internet documented anywhere.

    Cool. :)

    Regarding Twain, look for the sci-fi crime story entitled "From The 'London Times' in 1904". It actually depicts internet and social media usage very close to how we use it today.

    Very interesting.


    ... Don't hit me, Mr. Moderator... I'll go back on topic... I swear!

    This place is for the discussion of future technology (albiet how it
    might be applied to fidonet)

    Maybe we can use a Forster or a Twain here! LOL

    Haha yeah, true. :D


    ... Humour is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity.
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    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)
  • From August Abolins@2:221/1.58 to Tony Langdon on Wed Jul 10 23:36:00 2019
    Hello Tony!

    ** 09.07.19 - 20:29, Tony Langdon wrote to August Abolins:

    ...In the 80s, I
    imagines having a portable music player with no moving parts, simply using
    some sort of memory chips to store the music data. And today, they're
    everywhere. :)


    After I got my first cd player in the mid-80's, I wondered wouldn't be
    better if instead of CDs (and all the crazy moving mechanics to control
    the disc speed, the laser, changing a disc in a multi-player, etc..), that the music was on little ram modules that could be inserted into the
    player. The whole idea was to avoid moving parts. But I guess the cost of memory at that time would not make such a thing doable until about 10
    years later when portable mp3 players arrived instead.


    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.39
    * Origin: /|ug's Point, Ont. CANADA (2:221/1.58)
  • From Tony Langdon@3:633/410 to August Abolins on Thu Jul 11 15:56:00 2019
    On 07-10-19 23:36, August Abolins wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

    After I got my first cd player in the mid-80's, I wondered wouldn't be better if instead of CDs (and all the crazy moving mechanics to control the disc speed, the laser, changing a disc in a multi-player, etc..),
    that the music was on little ram modules that could be inserted into
    the player. The whole idea was to avoid moving parts. But I guess the cost of memory at that time would not make such a thing doable until
    about 10 years later when portable mp3 players arrived instead.

    Yeah, I knew that was the Holy Grail, but I also knew that the amount of memory
    required was impractical, but would eventually be feasible. And the other thing is that the storage had to be non volatile.

    What I didn't anticipate, which brought forward the the feasability by several years at least, was the invention of MP3 and similar compression algorithms, which reduced the file size by over 90%.


    ... All things being equal, a fat person uses more soap than a thin person.
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