this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There's a science fiction book series which name I cannot remember for the life of me but in there is a generation ship traveling from Earth to some other star system and it's been going for centuries.

No one really understands anymore how to operate any of the systems on the ship. They just know which buttons to press, but they have no real understanding of what it's actually doing.

A lot of app users seem to be like that. They can get the app to do what they want but they don't really understand why that's working or what other things the app could do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Not Foundation, but sounds a bit like it. Galactic empire collapses because no one knows how the technology that powers it works anymore.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

W40K has the same premise, except the "app-savvy" people are cyborg tech-priests praying to machine spirits, and which button to press is codified into rites.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

No it wasn't Foundation. I don't think it was from a very well-known author all I can remember about it is that and they had genetically engineered cats that glowed blue to detect radiation leakages.

The whole ship was designed so that people could forget how to operate it, and it wouldn't really matter. Can't really remember the justification for just not writing things down and keeping knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago