Like all predictions about future technology, Star Trek was both right and way off.
Padds are almost used like portable storage devices. Want to give someone a book? Load it onto a padd for them.
But who wants to deal with searching through the UI for pertinent info when you can have several PADDs each attuned to a specific set of data?
I’m more amused by Jake writing his stories on a PADD with a stylus, but you see it and it’s all printed text.
Production reason: without a stylus it looks like he’s reading, not writing. Without one, dialogue like “I’m writing a book” would come across as lying, which can completely change a scene for the worse.
In-universe lore reason: Jake is a romantic and probably feels that the more tactile approach is better for his creative process.
They can even have their own special UI! The way they talk about reconfiguring panels makes it seem like you can build your own UI on the fly, especially the time Worf yelled at a dude who put the con controls in the engine room of the defiant and didn’t use the standard layout.
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.
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 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.
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.
My headcanon is that some of the PADDs are 1-time use with read only memory that can’t have the data loaded or transferred off it. A secure way of passing information.
Just chuck them into a matter recycler when finished. No messy piles of old PADDs. Unless you’re Sloan from Section 31.
I know this is in his head, but in all likelihood how he really kept his notes.
Yeah, it’s commonly thought to have something to do with security. Similar to chain of custody for criminal evidence.
Engineering compiles a department report for the captain. The Shift Lead puts the data on a PADD, then gives that PADD to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer signs the data with their command code and notes that it is PADD-1217. That data then becomes locked to that PADD. Someone from Engineering is assigned to take PADD-1217 to the bridge and hand deliver it to the Captain. The Captain receives the PADD, reviews the report, confirms that they are holding PADD-1217, and signs the report with their command code. Someone from Engineering is sent to retrieve the PADD, and re-deliver it to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer confirms the PADD was read and signed by the Captain, confirms it is PADD-1217, and transfers the signed data to the computer core to be logged and archived. The Chief Engineer then confirms all data on the PADD has been transferred and erased, then stores the PADD until it is needed again.
This is why it’s common to see a pile of PADDs on the Captain’s desk. Each department is sending their own secure report on their own PADD.
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.
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.
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.
Never forget Voyager, where Torres could invent a brand new method of transporter lock and implement it on-the-fly all through a console on the bridge, but even the bio-neural gel packs weren’t smart enough to get a power requisition down to the bottom decks without someone putting it into a padd and physically walking it down there.
