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Retro Techno

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I was watching the remastered versions of the old 1960s Star Trek TV show the other day, and while the new graphics were great, I couldn't help but think how god-awful the instruments and displays were, compared what we are using today.

instrument panel from the old star trek show


But then -- being the contrarian I am -- I thought: Doesn't this actually make a bit of sense?

You see, as our machines have gotten more sophisticated we've wanted one machine that would do anything -- the average cell phone is a more powerful general-purpose computer than anything that existed in the 1960s. But let's assume for the moment that somehow Star Trek was real, and that they actually had a greater level of technology than we do today.

I think the panels still work.

Put another way: create a small device consisting of an indicator light (in any shape or color), a small computer system to work it, and some kind of communications protocol, perhaps BlueTooth. Take a PC and program the light to turn off and on based on any condition you set -- you receive new email, your stocks go up (or down), breaking news, somebody replies to your comment, you made a new sale on your e-commerce site.

Wouldn't a panel of such lights not only show more information that the equivalent number of screens, but would do so in a fashion that you wouldn't find distractive?

Taking this further, I argue that there is mostly nothing of importance that we are doing today that can't be encapsulated in 4 old-timey controls: the indicator light, the button, the gauge, and the printed list. No hypertext, no flash graphics, no web video. I could create one of those Star Trek panels and be able to monitor many more things in real-time than I currently do.

Everything we do is wrapped in such bullshit. I check my email, Google shows me ads based on contents of my emails. Do I want to buy something? Not when I started. I go to check my favorite news site and people are making comments that I find engaging. Do I want to comment? Not when I started. I read a newspaper article about a topic, and there are several links to additional research materials. Did I start reading the news in order to research earthworm farming in Australia? Not really. I go to read an editorial -- and have to plunge through a screen asking for a subscription, an ad for a car, and things jumping and flashing all over the place.

Traditionally such complaints are usually directed back at the complainer -- if you managed to stay on topic more and be more focused you'd drift away less. Let's not go all the way down the tech addiction road again, let's just ask the simple yet profoundly important question, "What do I really need compared to what I am getting?"

The designers for Star Trek - wonderful 60s guys that they were -- actually designed a system around stuff people needed. They didn't know tech, They knew that if something important happened a light would flash. Really, really important? Perhaps a sound., If you needed to tell how big something was? You'd show a gauge. What more is there than alerting you to something new, showing how relatively big something is, letting you select something, or letting you read a list of data? There are an infinite combination of these things, sure, but how many of those combinations do folks actually use?

If I were building a nuclear power plant there's no freaking way I would put a bunch of web browsers or general-purpose computers in the control room. Too much chance of a distraction. Instead, I'd have clear roles with clear and simple interfaces to perform these roles. You think I want some guy playing WoW while the reactor goes critical? If I were building a medical device, there'd be very few systems that would only do very few simple things. Displays and controls would be idiot-friendly.

Companies have latched on to this -- but they ask the devil's price. Apple made the iPad such a hit not because you could do a zillion things with it but because it did one thing -- play music -- in a simple, easy-to-understand, and reliable manner. Whole industries are springing up making general-purpose computers back into simple indicator lights.

instrument panel from the old star trek show

Or put another way, currently most technology businesses are in the business of taking data from you that you find important -- your comments, your financial records, your favorite stories, your correspondence, your friends -- making it simple-to-use and access, and then putting it behind a wall on the internet. If you want at the data, you have to bring a browser to the party -- and the browser is going to display many, many more things than just the things you find important. In the industry these are known as "engagement devices" -- things to pull you in and make you use the site more.

You can't get to your data unless you use a browser, and they don't even want you automating the browser. While many of them will say you can download your data any time you want, they know that tools for doing these are few and far between for the average internet user. You'd rather put up with ads and engagement material than figure out how to make the blinking light and list.

On HackerNews last night we were discussing Philip Greenspun's article which implied that much of the American workforce is not only obsolete but untrainable. Sure, stuff has gotten complex. But how much of that is actual complexity and how much of it are we putting on ourselves?

I look at the average Microsoft development stack -- and I am appalled. A new developer drops a custom control on a form and is immediately presented with dozens, maybe hundreds of drop-downs and selectors, all about customizing that one control. I've seen many, many developers cognitively paralyzed by all the options the first time they start programming. These aren't stupid people -- many are smarter than I will ever be -- but with the overload of choices, options, and distractions it becomes very difficult to stay focused on what the goal is. Microsoft has 40 thousand developers all making the infinitely configurable single general purpose system. Striving as hard as they can to make one system that has a trillion options, will work for anybody, and be programmable by nobody.

Combating that, on the other end of the spectrum are startups that do one thing simply -- and then keep your data for eternity. As a favor to you, of course.

This is all bullshit. It's a false choice. An important system can be infinitely complex and configurable, yet still be able to be operated by 3-year-old. And I don't have to give up any of my data to have it that way.

Imagine a world with big blinking lights -- there's the email panel. You can see I have some new emails, but none from close friends and no critical emails. There's the new technology panel. Looks like most of the stories are Apple-related today. There's the financial sector -- net worth is still doing well. Friend's pictures from FaceBook is moving along at 5/hour, but that's the normal rate for Mondays. My whole technology interaction experience -- a bunch of lights, buttons, gauges, and lists. If you'd like, if you insist on being cool, put it all on an iPad. Driving a car isn't about understanding how internal combustion engines work, it's about knowing how to navigate, how to avoid obstacles. Even flying a 777 into Dulles on a rainy night isn't about knowing how every system works -- it's about managing the five to seven most important factors at any one time -- which for 99% of the cases is all you ever need, then being able to read a checklist and know where the switches are.

In fact, in the aviation world a lot of thought is given to the fact that we are giving pilots too many systems to manage simply because we can. NASA's Highway-in-the-sky (HITS) program says that if you land a plane, and you can fly through boxes displayed on a HUD, you can fly anywhere.

Somebody needs to get to work on making some 1960s technology.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on August 9, 2010 1:13 PM.

The Big Mother Honking Monster Survey of Time and Space was the previous entry in this blog.

Markham Panels is the next entry in this blog.

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