Haxle

joined 1 year ago
[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

It's not a device that Sagan goes into much detail about, aside from it being a new and less-than-reliable technology in the early parts of the story. I always imagined it as a laptop-sized, wireless fax machine using cellular networks to share data. Characters mostly use paper documents throughout the book, and while there are some sci-fi technologies like holographic displays that advance throughout the story, Sagan never describes anything like portable computers or smartphones. Even the internet(or its closest approximation) never goes beyond a rudimentary data-sharing network for astronomers, never open to the public.

A quick google search tells me EFax would probably work over that network, sending documents from a desktop straight to someone's Portable Telefax like an email, so you're not far off.

[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (9 children)

I recently read Contact(the book by Carl Sagan, still need to watch the movie), which features a tech billionaire who built his wealth doing exactly that. He developed a chip that could block TV commercials, and later one to filter televangelists as well.

For a book that was published in the 80s and set in the late 90s, it's prescient in a few very specific ways. We weren't exactly communicating by Portable Telefax in 1999, but adblockers were not far away either.

[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

You used the term 'millennial journalism' in reference to shitty headlines. That pretty directly implies that millenials are responsible for shitty headlines.

That said: whoa nelly, my comment was a joke, not an argument. A pretty flaccid joke too, to warrant this kind of defense. I'm not your enemy, alright?

[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You know we're right here, right?

'Millenials are ruining headlines' is a level of meta I've yet to see from that trope.

[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Herbert West just can't catch a break.

[–] Haxle@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Somebody dress up like a wizard and go ponder this thing.