Enjoyed your phaser essay, including the Reetion vs. Gelack take on design. Looks like a "research and commentary" article, inspired by both your garage door remote and your work on the causes of medical accidents.

I think Sci Fi writers projecting well designed futures should read more history. Maybe especially the history of technology and science. And not overlook the sheer, stubborn persistence of the QWERTY keyboard, the imperial system or weights and measures, and English spelling and grammar, just to name a few examples. Just as Mark Twain's captain remarks on there being "plenty of pain and suffering in heaven", there will be "plenty of bad design and irrationality" in the future, I think.

Bit of a non sequitur but reminds me of a story my Dad told me about "the accidents of war". He never saw action of the movie style sort. Got hit with a bit of schrapnel sitting in the back of a truck being driven away from a skirmish, in Germany, as they were coming along behind the front line of things, tidying up. Apart from that, the only fatal event was getting bombed by the British accidentally. And a story he told about a couple of Canadian soldiers told to lay communication lines "as far as the Black Forest" who never came back. Apparently the line they were laying passed straight through the Black Forest and out the other side, over into territory still held by the Germans. My Dad said they probably didn't grasp that the Black Forest was a forest, not a park. The Black Forest story has the feel to it of the army equivalent of an urban myth. But the bombing accident he experienced, personally. I believe the cook was the only person killed.

posted by Lynda at 23:59   comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments