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submitted 1 day ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works

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[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago

When I was a kid, Commander Data from Star Trek TNG was the height of technological possibility. TNG was set in the 2300s.

It looks like hard drives are selling for about 20 bucks a terabyte now. Commander Data had a storage capacity of 100 petabytes.

So today, to buy hard drives equivalent to the capacity Commander Data would cost about $2 million. You would have to be very wealthy to afford that as an individual, but the cost will only get lower. It will still be quite awhile before a random laptop will have a Commander Data's worth of storage space. But you're talking decades, not centuries.

Though, this calculation is for the Data that appeared in the original TNG run. His more recent appearance in Star Trek Picard may be different, as his specifications there may canonically differ.

This calculation was only meant to detail the capacity of the original Commander Data, not the more recent Big Data.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

I like to re-read my favorite science fiction classics and giggle at the author's mistakes.

In "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" a self-aware computer struggles over creating a CGI face for him/herself. Also, iirc, the computer uses tape.

William Gibson has done essays about how much he got wrong in 'Neuromancer," but my personal favorite is the spaceship pilot who never heard of a computer virus.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

My favorites are in Asimov. In the Foundation series, one product the traders sell is a nuclear powered ash tray. They employ advanced nuclear plasma manipulation to...quickly atomize cigarette butts.

Or the time there's this couple. They are traveling to another planet, and they get aboard their personal interstellar spaceship. The society is advanced enough, that that is just something you can own.

What happens as soon as they get onboard their personal FTL interstellar ship? The husband commands his wife to get dinner started.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 22 hours ago

They employ advanced nuclear plasma manipulation to…quickly atomize cigarette butts.

You have a powerful computer you use to look at cat memes.

I hate to be brutal, but you forced me to take extreme measures

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[-] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

8th grade teacher got pissed at us on 9/11 because he thought we were laughing at the fact that a plane had hit the WTC. We were laughing because one of the girls didn't know what the WTC was. We turned on the TVs to see the second one get hit.

6th grade we had napster while some of us were still bringing in cases of floppies to play games that'd run on the computers

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

9/11 was high school for me, Columbine mass shooting was around the same time. I went from end of cold war get under your desk drills in early grade school to a few years with no drills aside from tornado, to ending high school with active shooter drills.

[-] runner_g 4 points 22 hours ago

4th grade for me, so barely old enough to understand the significance, but definitely old enough to remember airports without TSA, and being able to go all the way to the gate with whomever was flying.

[-] EvilFonzy@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

I had a girl in my classroom watch the second plane hit the tower and said out loud to the room, "wow, what a coincidence." We were so innocent... and she was so dumb.

[-] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 11 points 1 day ago

The elders had to rewind the movies after watching

[-] courageousstep@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

I still own a VCR and a vast collection of VHS tapes. I mean, I also pay for streaming services, but without the old 90s commercials for Disney World and previews for movies that were released in 1995, the movies just don’t hit the same.

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

If only the pace of technology was the only paradigm shift to have to worry about since the 80s/90s

[-] philluminati@lemmy.ml 7 points 23 hours ago

Honestly?

It’s you guys that are missing out. You literally miss the perspective we have. Social media is completely optional. What the politicians do doesn’t affect you. Ignorance is bliss.

[-] Montagge@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

This post makes my knees hurt

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Wait… what happened to people born in 1989 that didn’t to those born in 1991???

[-] Kaput@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I remember beta vs VHS debates, now get off my lawn!

[-] Ele7en7@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Beta was superior

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago

Funny story. Back in the 1960s porn shops invented loop booths. You'd pay a quarter and have five quiet minutes alone to watch an 8 mm porn movie. When the time came to switch over to video, the porn shops went with the cheaper option. The guys who made the tapes put them on VHS because the porn shops were the biggest market at the start. When guys went to buy dirty movies for home viewing they saw that most were only available on VHS.

That's how Sony lost billions.

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[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

So was HDDVD. Both lost for the same reason, money backed the rivals.

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[-] L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Nah fuck em. They invented nuclear physics and they can't figure out a goddamned email? Skill issue.

[-] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 4 points 23 hours ago

My aunt was born before TV was broadcast

[-] Perhapsjustsniffit@lemmy.ca 4 points 22 hours ago

My mom had the first tv in our community when she was a kid cause her dad owned the general store. Before that they all gathered around the radio at the store. By they, I mean the entire community cause he was the only one with a radio as well.

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this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025

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