I understand the desire to have a realistic presentation of science in science fiction. Sometimes Sci Fi veers off into a direction is like the Fantasy genre but with advanced technology replacing magic. Yet one area where it often falls down is getting basic computer technology right. The best example that comes to mind is a book from a prominent Sci Fi writer that horribly mangled the description of a tablet computer. He described a tablet computer that uses wireless signals inside the device to allow different internal components to communicate with one another. For most of the book, the characters couldn't use these computing devices because the signals would be detected by aliens passing by the planet.
No one in their right mind would make a small, tablet PC-like device that uses **wireless** signals to communicate between hardware components! First of all, you'd have all sorts of security problems with people being able to intercept and modify the signals between hardware components. Second, you'd have a problem with bandwidth... it'd be an inherently slow device unless you used wireless signals powerful enough to literally burn all of the flesh off your hand within minutes of holding the device. Finally, a modern 802.11 network can barely make it through a multi-story house. The odds that aliens would be able to detect it a dozen or more miles away in orbit are laughable.
No one in their right mind would make a small, tablet PC-like device that uses **wireless** signals to communicate between hardware components! First of all, you'd have all sorts of security problems with people being able to intercept and modify the signals between hardware components. Second, you'd have a problem with bandwidth... it'd be an inherently slow device unless you used wireless signals powerful enough to literally burn all of the flesh off your hand within minutes of holding the device. Finally, a modern 802.11 network can barely make it through a multi-story house. The odds that aliens would be able to detect it a dozen or more miles away in orbit are laughable.
A more realistic "fear" would be that their sensors could pick up the EM signature from the device, which of course would be very small, and if they could detect that the even bigger fear would be that they could detect the EM signature of a body.
A FACT you do not know about me, nor do you probably care is that I love the television program, Dr Who ;)
I don't much care for magic unless it's not creepy; that Chris guy is disturbed. But it has to be good illusions for me to gasp, "Whoaaa!"
I don't find it a need in SCI FI for all the elaborate goffy costumes; whatever floats your boat I guess :)
What part of the word fiction are you struggling with man/ And with all that is going on in the world I am glad to read someone who is not worried about how he will afford a scifi paperback a month from now. Must be nice on your planet man.