this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
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The smartphone is the only science fiction thing we have.
We didn't get table top fusion reactors, food pills, Rosie the robot, casual commercial space travel, flying cars, hoverboards, etc...
But we did get a little computer we can carry around that has literally everything in it. It's a camera, it's camcorder, it's a microcassette voice recorder, computer, telephone, book, TV, video conference system, remote control for all my lights, remote control for the TV, a McDonald's ordering device, instant messenger, magazine, radio, GPS for my car, GPS tracker for my family, health monitoring device, flashlight, Sears catalog - It would probably be harder to come up with a list of things that it can't do.
You can take my smartphone from my cold dead hands.
This kind of "single device that replaced an entire backpack of stuff" is why there are no computers in the Dune universe.
They would make the plots too easy to resolve.
The whole no computers thing in Dune never made any sense. The only difference between a computer and an industrial controller is scale, not kind. We had wood computers in the 19th century. Some of them are still operating.
Ok lets talk about sewage. To turn human feces into dirt we use stages, to move from stage to stage we use screw conveyors. Without computers how are you going to regulate the speed of it? When to run them? Deal with clogs? Report motor problems?
Nothing would work beyond about the 1840s. And yet they act like it does. Which brings me to my fantheory about Dune: Just assume everything is told by inbred religious royality morons cosplaying and it all makes sense. Why do they fight with swords? Why cant they fold space without spice and yet clearly could in the past? Why do they think the Bene witches have powers? Because they are religious royality morons cosplaying.
From: Leia@royal.ald
Subject: Deathstar plans
We did get flying cars. They are called helicopters. Impractical except for niche applications.
Look at the mofos you see only dealing with driving in straight lines on the ground and tell me you want them flying. Like a week ago I made the foolish mistake of honking (one honk) someone who cut me off and they got behind me just so they could rage honk and tailgate me for a solid minute. You want that guy with access to the ability to drop stuff from above?
I don't trust most LA drivers to handle two degrees of freedom (technically one and a half) why the fuck would I trust them with six then?
touch grass lad
I agree, in fact let's get rid of all technological advances humans have made in the past few hundreds of thousands of years. Man wasn't intended to use "tools" like weapons or agriculture or housing or machine manufacturing. Our ORIGINS say we're monkeys, we shouldn't be walking on 2 legs or speaking like this! After all, social sedentary culture and technological advancement is COMPLETELY UNNATURAL and NOT AT ALL a core part of an ""intelligent"" species' evolution! Ooo ooo aaa aaa
So, return to monke?
Turn Monke my friend Ooo oo aaaa!