My desk has a desktop with two monitors, a laptop, an iPad, and a phone. I use each of them for different reasons throughout a day.
TBH the only reason I have so few devices laying around is because they’re expensive. If I lived in a post-scarcity society, I’d have a lot more tablets on my desk.
Engineering - Apple iPad
Security - GNU/Hurd Mobile Flatscreen
Medical - MS Surface TNG
10 Front - Samsung FuchsiaPad
And none of them are interoperable. Did you really think they would solve that in the future?
Considering that Star Trek’s Earth is a communist utopia, I would expect so, yes.
They don’t have money, and other than Starfleet and The UFP council, they don’t seem to have government. I assume that someone is still administering France, since we do see France still exists, but they don’t refer to The US, because I don’t think the US survived to the 24th century. There’s an argument to be made that they’re mostly communist.
I recently read an interesting argument that the federation isn’t in fact communist, but basically something beyond our current economic concepts.
We have:
- explicit self determination, individualism and self fulfillment are held in the highest regard, so much so that it is considered the objective of life to find personal fulfillment and in doing so, giving back to society
- post scarcity economy, everyone can have any material need fulfilled at any time by virtue of replicators. Though many goods and commodities are still produced in the traditional way to provide a better quality product (how is this limited amount allocated?)
- Money is not used internally, but the federation has no objection to using it for commerce with other cultures. There is also indication for power tied credit system that federation citizens are subject to, for example for complex replication and transport
- being a merchant or trader, or rather generally seeking profit and material wealth are, while considered outdated by most, not offensive or even illegal within the federation. There is plenty of evidence for private enterprise, for example the publishing studio that distributes the doctor’s holo novel in VOY
And many more, even contradictory to our current day minds, aspects that put the federation system and ideology someplace further than our current concepts.
It’s very amazing to me that we have better tablets today than they had on TNG, yet we’re further from space exploration today than we were when TNG was being made.
No, I’m with you. I think it’s needless most of the time. People are arguing uses, but Star Trek really takes it to a needless level. I remember an episode of, I think, TNG where someone has to be trained and is given a big box of PADDs to read. Jake has a different PADD for everything he writes.
I have a two monitor system on my desktop and I do use all of that desktop space, but there’s a limit to how many screens I could see myself ever needing.
And really, you would think Starfleet would come up with something more efficient.
$0.02:
We used to get plenty done with much less screen area, so there’s isn’t really a driving need, per-se. There’s nothing wrong with that workflow, even today.
That said, more pixels does enable some useful possibilities. IMO, the major difference comes down to using your peripheral vision (which wasn’t possible before) and less background tasking. Both converge on less cognitive load since you don’t need a mental map of what’s in the background (everything is “foreground” now). Instead, you can scan your immediate environment (screen real-estate, physical devices, etc) to find what you want. And I think it’s ultimately a matter of taste: some people will find that overwhelming instead of helpful or useful.
Honestly if I could just print up a new tablet instantly and without cost, I would have half a dozen around me when I am deep into a research fugue.
Being able to quickly and easily flip between books or articles (or even different sections of the same book) while at the same time keeping the existing information up on a screen that I can directly reference is great.
I can see it used for that sort of thing, but they pass them around like they’re post-it notes.
They apparently put the human element back into communications by having a third party physically carry the message like pre-screen eras. For reasons, you see.
Why are there 4 browsers split between 2 monitors with dozens of tabs a piece?
I’m starting to feel limited at two monitors and I think I have a problem. I don’t even know what I’d use #3 for yet, I just would like to have options.
I have a 42inch curved 4K main monitor.
It’s fucking huge.
Still have 2 27 inch ones in portrait to each side for documentation and browsing.
Rather have 4x 21" screens though.
Much easier to organise all the different windows that way.
