TL8 Computing

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Culture20

Nothing ran concurrently.

Just because Intel/IBM/Microsoft systems didn't do more than one thing at a time doesn't mean that it wasn't something that was happening back then. Aside from anything the heavy metal was doing, Amigas handed off their sound and graphics to dedicated chips so that the CPU could get on with other tasks (and did a creditable job of multitasking in 1990 than Windows 95 managed in 1995).

[AlexanderHowl]

And where is Amiga now? Amiga had a nice trick that allowed for multiple applications, but it died when 3D graphics came around. Now, Commodore could have been Intel had its executives been more intelligent, had treated its dealers and customers with a modicum of respect, and had invested in 3D graphics, but they did not.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

And where is Amiga now? Amiga had a nice trick that allowed for multiple applications, but it died when 3D graphics came around. Now, Commodore could have been Intel had its executives been more intelligent, had treated its dealers and customers with a modicum of respect, and had invested in 3D graphics, but they did not.

Which has to do with the company management, not the platform and its tech.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Transatlantic cables appeared at early TL5, but they had zero impact on the lives of any of my ancestors until late TL6. By which time phones also existed, but, importantly, none of my ancestors could afford calling or sending cables over the Atlantic. They wrote letters, even if they knew that the ultra-rich Americans and British had other options.

It should perhaps also be mentioned that sending cables and writing letters while both being methods of sending words to someone far away tended to facilitate different means of communicating. A letter would be multiple pages of handwritten text containing hundreds of words. A cable, because it was expensive would read something like a modern day tweet (Horse died. Stuck in Albuquerque. Send money).

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Transatlantic cables appeared at early TL5, but they had zero impact on the lives of any of my ancestors until late TL6. By which time phones also existed, but, importantly, none of my ancestors could afford calling or sending cables over the Atlantic. They wrote letters, even if they knew that the ultra-rich Americans and British had other options.

Actually, by 4/e definitions, TL5 began around 1715, a few decades after the founding of the Royal Society. At that point they didn't even have Leyden jars, let along the voltaic piles that made telegraphy workable. The first successful transatlantic cable (there were a couple of unsuccessful attempts) was sometime around 1860. TL6 begins in 1880. So "late TL5," really.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Consider how many daily tasks are performed in the same way today as they were in 1990. How many jobs are unchanged.

I started copy editing professionally in the late 1980s. On my first day on the job, I was handed a typed manuscript, a pencil sharpener, and a stack of lead pencils. When I was trusted to communicate with authors, if they lived in the United States or Canada, I made a long distance phone call; if they were overseas, I typed a letter and put it in an envelope. Most questions were dealt with by writing a marginal note for the author on the physical manuscript, which would be copied by the typesetters onto the proofs that would be sent to the author.

There were several intermediate stages, but these days, 100% of the manuscripts I work on come to me as electronic files. I edit them on my computer; I haven't touched a pencil professionally in a decade. If I have questions, I send them to the author by e-mail, or I put them into the Comments field of the electronic manuscript and send that to the author for review when I'm done.

The essence of the job is the same: I'm making sure an author's manuscript conforms to the rules of English and the publisher's style guide. But all of the means are different.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Actually, by 4/e definitions, TL5 began around 1715, a few decades after the founding of the Royal Society. At that point they didn't even have Leyden jars, let along the voltaic piles that made telegraphy workable. The first successful transatlantic cable (there were a couple of unsuccessful attempts) was sometime around 1860. TL6 begins in 1880. So "late TL5," really.

Yeah, I meant to say 'late TL5'. Wild West amd Victorian adventiring era.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yeah, I meant to say 'late TL5'. Wild West amd Victorian adventiring era.

Sadly, when 4e moved the TL split from 1900 to 1880 they split those two eras between TLs 5 and 6.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yeah, I meant to say 'late TL5'. Wild West amd Victorian adventiring era.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Sadly, when 4e moved the TL split from 1900 to 1880 they split those two eras between TLs 5 and 6.

Late TL 5 is almost its own TL. I certainly treat it as one. It features telegraphs, railways, steam ships, and revolvers, but not bolt actions, radio, diesel, or telephones. Its a very small period, but its also very iconic and well known.

I suppose I could say the same thing about early TL8. Its a small time period with capabilities very much over TL7, but certainly not mature TL8. Its also a period of intense interest, as the best known action films are set in it and its very well known in the popular culture, because a large segment of the population lived through it.

The effective power of a computer is interesting, because if you know what you're doing you can get a LOT more out of it. And conversely, if you just let things sit, the OS will grow to fill the vessel its given.

[tanksoldier]

You're overstaing the effects of transatlantic cables to the vast majority of people. Anyone outside of the 1% of the richest of the world population essentially had zero chance of making use of them.

I agree. TV and radio maybe but the telegraph had almost zero impact on the average person.

International business and diplomacy were affected but anything really important still required a person to go wherever and meet face to face. Now million dollar deals are done over Skype.

I'm with Rupert in saying that my computer of 2018 isn't even 10x as useful as the first one I had in 1998.

I suspect the lack of increased utility has more to do with the meatware than the hardware or software.

None of us here, or very few, are doing anything ourselves with these vastly increased capabilities. We’re using programs other people wrote on hardware someone else designed and built to argue with people around the globe about the impact of technology on the human experience as it relates to a game... while seemingly oblivious to the fact that for most of MY lifetime this discussion would have been impossible except by getting everyone in the same room... which is amazing and which we’re using for something trivial.

The limitations on the impact of the technology are because of what we do with the technology, not because of what the technology can do. The companies making these things make them do the same things they did ten years ago, maybe with more colors and bells, because WE are doing the same things with them.

As the joke goes: “In my pocket I have a device which gives me instant access to the sum total of human knowledge. I use it to look at pictures of cats and argue with strangers.”

Years ago it was pointed out that your average laptop was more powerful than the computers on the space shuttle, and before that some calculators were more powerful than the Apollo mission computers... but nobody was using them to go into space.

Part of the problem is that to do anything else besides what the pre-packaged hardware and software allow is you have to be able to build your own hardware and write your own software... or rich enough for someone to do it for you... and you have to have something that you want done.

The average person COULD send an international telegram if they really had to despite the expense... but few had any reason to do so. The limiting factor wasn’t really cost, it was need.

So, hospitals, militaries, governments, large businesses ARE getting unique programs and even hardware that affect their niche. We the average person are not... in the second place because of expense but in the FIRST place because we haven’t come up with a need... just like the average person didn’t see/ have the need to send telegraphs.

These organizations and their technologies impact us perherally, when traffic patterns are improved or hospital visits are more efficient, but not directly... again, much like the telegraph.