The Purpose of Science Fiction

2011-01-31 Thread Ronn! Blankenship 
Science fiction teaches governments—and 
citizens—how to understand the future of technology.

By Robert J. Sawyer
Slate Magazine - http://www.slate.com/id/2282651?nav=wp


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Re: The Purpose of Science Fiction

2011-01-31 Thread Alberto Monteiro 
Ronn! Blankenship wrote:

 Science fiction teaches governments—and 
 citizens—how to understand the future of technology.
 By Robert J. Sawyer
 Slate Magazine - http://www.slate.com/id/2282651?nav=wp
 
I prefer what He said. Science fiction paints horrible futures,
and make people fight for them not to happen.

Alberto Monteiro


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Brin: Real inventions since 1970

2011-01-31 Thread KZK 
Steve Roth asks an interesting question about the number and type of 
real inventions since the seventies (that aren't just improvements of 
existing inventions):


http://www.asymptosis.com/name-one-really-big-invention-since-1970-besides-the-internet.html

Optical media? (CD, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu)
Hard Drives?

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Re: Brin: Real inventions since 1970

2011-01-31 Thread Ronn! Blankenship 

At 04:48 PM Monday 1/31/2011, KZK wrote:
Steve Roth asks an interesting question about 
the number and type of real inventions since the 
seventies (that aren't just improvements of existing inventions):


http://www.asymptosis.com/name-one-really-big-invention-since-1970-besides-the-internet.html

Optical media? (CD, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu)
Hard Drives?




Hard drives — in the sense of a rigid substrate 
coated with a magnetic substance — certainly existed in 1970.


This is a type I used in those days:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-VINTAGE-DISK-PLATTER-2135-2-THESE-/320621059587

on an IBM 1130:

http://www.ibm1130.net/functional/DiskStorage.html

with a platter about a foot across (about the 
size of a LP record album from the day) inside 
the pictured enclosure (which some compared to a 
pizza carrier) that had a capacity (as measured 
today) of about 1 megabyte.  (And the price this 
guy wants for these two is just about the same 
numerical price they sold for in the early 70s!)


Put a few of them together on a spindle and you got a disk pack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_IBM_disk_storage


. . . ronn!  :)



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