Editing 2481: 1991 and 2021
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by an ILLEGAL LASER POINTER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
− | This comic shows a Cueball from 2021 | + | This comic shows a Cueball from 2021 discussing the future's technology with White Hat, who is apparently living in 1991. White Hat is awed by the advances in technology, but is not expecting that the law combating laser attacks on passenger aircraft is not the most important thing mentioned. |
− | "Laser attacks on | + | "Laser attacks on airplanes" ''sounds'' dramatic and important, and White Hat probably thinks that {{w|laser weapon}}s have been developed and have been used to attack aircraft. In reality, the "lasers" in question are low-powered laser pointers, which some people aim at passenger airliners as a (dangerous) prank; when the beam hits the airplane, but it cannot damage the plane itself, much less shoot it from the sky.{{citation needed}} It can, however, blind the pilot, which poses a threat to them and their passengers; a law ([https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/39A 18 USC §39A]) was thus passed in 2012 to criminalize this. |
− | + | The robot fighting TV shows mentioned include ''{{w|BattleBots}}'', {{w|Robot Wars (TV series)|''Robot Wars''}}, and {{w|MegaBots Inc.|''MegaBots''}}, the earliest of which started in 1998. In them, machines armed with a variety of weapons fight in an arena. These are not technically robots in the traditional sense; for the most part, they are either remote controlled or piloted by humans, and have only rudimentary on board computer systems. They are certainly not controlled by AI. Also, while these shows have been popular enough to return to the air after periods of hiatus, they are not nearly as popular as sports involving humans. | |
− | + | In this comic, "cordless phone" may be meant literally, meaning any wireless phone without a cord. That's distinct from common parlance where "cordless phone" is distinct from a cellular phone, and is a wireless extension of a landline, typically of limited range, i.e. within a home. However, cellular phones do not have much longer range than cellular phones of 1991 (in fact most have less range, lower transmission power & use of higher frequencies, as well as indirectly due to increasing crowding on most wireless frequencies). Cordless phones reliant on a land-line, may exhibit somewhat longer range than they did in 1991, due to improvements in digital error correction & audio compression, although the effective range of a single transmission at a given power & frequency would otherwise be reduced by interference from the proliferation of other wireless devices outside functional range &\or operating independently. Satellite phones also offer more terrestrial range than cellular or cordless landline phones, however their functional range has not greatly increased since 1991 either (being already sufficient to reach a satellite within line-of-sight above). One likely explanation for a perceived "longer range" is that cellular phone towers are much more omnipresent than in 1991, granting cellular devices much greater functional area even though their functional range from ''one'' tower is typically less than in 1991. | |
− | + | Sharing on social media has distorted what news stories people encounter. Instead of a curated selection of important news fact-checked by a newspaper or tv/radio broadcast, we see only what people similar to us found interesting. | |
− | + | By most reasonable measures, the most important technologies on the list could be seen as the rise of mobile phones, and the ability to easily share news stories (aside of course, from any perceived advent of high-powered laser weapons or televised robotic warfare). The first of these, mobile phone usage (& smartphones in particular) has led to a dramatic change in how people communicate, with a large amount of communication now remote, which was not as convenient in the 90s (requiring, for example, setting up {{w|roaming}} at the carrier's office before taking the phone to another city) and impossible for most people a few decades prior: Low frequency wireless for personal communication was relatively uncommon in the early '90s & remains so today. Sharing of news stories person-to-person is partly blamed for the spread of {{w|fake news}}; misinformation has become more and more politically, legally, & socially significant in the past few years. While wireless communication has certainly had enormous & wide-ranging effects, the factuality of the data communicated is arguably of greater importance than the means of its communication. The joke is that the impact of a technology on society isn't really about how exciting or dangerous it might look at first glance. | |
− | + | The title text horrifies 90s White Hat, who is blissfully unaware of [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]]. At the time, the {{w|Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS|spread of HIV/Aids}} was regularly in the news, though because it was predominantly sexually-transmitted, thereby giving it a comparatively low {{w|Basic reproduction number|reproduction number}}, there was debate on whether to consider it a pandemic. For this reason, a lockdown was never considered to contain it and dealing with a similar outbreak using one could be seen as very extreme indeed. | |
− | + | On release, the title text was not actually included as such. It was instead included as the text of a "see also" link, which is often invisible to readers and is activated by clicking the comic. Such links have been used in the past for larger versions of the comic or for related information on other sites. Here, it linked back to the comic itself, and was evidently a mistake. | |
− | + | ==Transcript== | |
− | + | :[Cueball (with a time travel aura) is talking to White Hat] | |
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:White Hat: Welcome to 1991! | :White Hat: Welcome to 1991! | ||
:White Hat: So you're from 2021? What happens with technology over the next 30 years? | :White Hat: So you're from 2021? What happens with technology over the next 30 years? | ||
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:Cueball: We passed a federal law to combat laser attacks on airliners, and there are TV shows where robots battle. | :Cueball: We passed a federal law to combat laser attacks on airliners, and there are TV shows where robots battle. | ||
:Cueball: Also, cordless phones are longer range now, and it's really easy to send news stories to your friends. | :Cueball: Also, cordless phones are longer range now, and it's really easy to send news stories to your friends. | ||
:White Hat: Wow, okay. | :White Hat: Wow, okay. | ||
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:Cueball: Now, try to guess which of those things turn out to be important. | :Cueball: Now, try to guess which of those things turn out to be important. | ||
:White Hat: ...is it not the lasers? | :White Hat: ...is it not the lasers? | ||
:Cueball: It is not the lasers. | :Cueball: It is not the lasers. | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} |