 |
City Fathers
A set of computer systems which run every mechanical system in a city. (Read the full article)
| "Another interesting aspect of the city fathers: they are mechanically separated. There is one scene where the human characters are watching city fathers trundle about. Apparently, they only make contact to repair and communicate. The repair part makes certain sense, but to a person living in our connected age of internet and cloud computing, it seems ludicrous. If Cities in Flight were written today, the "city fathers" might be primarily software, running on a substrate of connectivity." (Grapeshot 3/12/2010 1:40:53 PM ) |
| "This might seem be less ludicrous than it seems. Look at the Wikipedia entry "sneakernet". No matter how connected the world seems to be, there are reasons that certain computer systems are not connected to others all of the time. One reason is security. I've never read the stories in question, so I don't know if security is an issues with them. The other reason is bandwidth. In the Wikipedia entry it mentioned that sneakernets are used when datasets are just too large to send over the internet in a reasonable amount of time." (Jarrod 1/24/2011 12:12:30 PM ) |
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned. So, send me your comments to bill at the site name (be sure to mention the page) and I'll post them. Thanks!
Current News Articles
Miss Alabama Beauty Contest Offers Different Standards
'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.'
Has Musk Given Up On Full Self Driving (FSD)?
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...'
Prufrock-3 'The Monster' Ready To Launch
Just go for it.
Drones In Vast Airborne Grids
'These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern...'
Starship Special Edition For Lunar Shuttle
Love those special edition spaceships.
Capturing Asteroids With Nets
'...the meteor caught and halted just as a small boy catches a swift ball in his cap.'
Project Hyperion - Generation Ship Designers Needed!
'We have decided that it shall be but one ship... it must contain everything needed to take us through the generations.'
AI Welfare Position At Anthropic Filled By Human
'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'
Marslink Proposed By SpaceX
'It was the heart of the Solar System's communication line...'
Simple Way To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'... designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Wood-Panelled LignoSat Launched
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories
'His contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory.'
