The Tech Files

It's recently been asked on this blog (and has been asked elsewhere) as to why the world of The Descendants isn't as technologically advanced as many other speculative series set in the future attempt.

Well, this post is all about the tech of The Descendants, both the what and the why behind it. All will be revealed, under the cut.

The short answer I gave to the original question was that technology has, in fact advanced in the 21^st century of The Descendants, only it has advanced in different directions than one might expect. Advances in material, fabrication, propulsion and energy comes immediately to mind.

For example, Mayfield features run of the mill apartment buildings that routinely top eighty stories, something that isn't all that common. These were made possible by new building tools and techniques as well as cheaper, stronger building materials that have made such large buildings more feasible for more and different purposes.

In turn, these buildings are serviced by state of the art energy concerns, mostly advanced solar and wind modules (experimental models of which are seen clustered together in Metal X) and solarized highways and parking lots.

Clearly, there hasn't been focus on these issues, but they are there. Plus some more obvious examples; hydration ovens, the flying cars, holographic displays, powered armor, and anything having to do with the interfacers.

Which brings me to a lot of people's biggest tech question: the phones. Why, I am asked, do we not see the characters texting? Why are phones and palmtops separate units when we have the iPhone today? And why aren't they smaller?

The texting issue, I will admit is my prejudice: I personally hope that the culture of constant texting actually won't last 60 years. With the rise of voice over IP, and the fact that we now have programs designed to write what we're saying into a text and to read our texts to us, I think it might not be too much to venture that the new cool thing will be Voice Instant Messaging in Real Time. That's not crotchety old man speak, I fully expect it to be called that without irony.

The separation of phone and computer thing is linked intrinsically with the size question. My vision here, which I've never really had need to go into detail with, is phone-as-peripheral. Assuming texting will be relegated in the future to quick messages instead of conversations, and assuming a palm-top is ubiquitous enough to be sold in cheapo versions at dollar stores, all a phone needs to be is a speaker, a bone conduction mic, and maybe a screen large enough to show the incoming call.

The unit can then be plugged into a computer for uploading info, programming in numbers, etc. The internet capable computer takes over all other duties with the phone being a 'dumb phone', i.e. a phone that needs the computer to think for it.

The computer, however, can't get much smaller. Why? The screen, for one. The iPhone's screen is okay for your smart phoning needs, but eventually, people are going to want to not squint forever, especially as you spend more and more time consulting it. Also, at some point, people are going to want to carry real computers with them and will want something more portable than a tablet (which is fine for the college student, not so fine for say, the jogger).

Of course, we currently live n the age were processor speed doubles every 18 months (give or take), but at least in the Descendants universe, quantum computing is still a laboratory science. Not because it's impossible, but because the costs make it unmarketable. Therefore, a palmtop will still fit in your palm.

To address the screen issue, yes, there are video glasses, we've even seem them in the series, but much like 3-d glasses, they're not comfortable for most people and pretty much right out for people who still have glasses.

The other big thing is that we've seen characters buying physical media where today there is more and more of a push toward cloud computing and digital delivery. The reason for this two pronged: One: it serves the plot better to have the characters actually going out and purchasing things instead of downloading them. Two, I don't think physical media will fully die.

Why? Ownership. Over the past few years, the concept of ownership of a movie of software has become the stuff that requires a witch doctor and chicken bones to figure out. The companies want you to license these things for a specific type of personal presentation or use, and conveniently, this removes the rights to fair use. I'm taking a gamble on this and saying that there is or has been a movement by 2070 toward protecting consumer rights of digital products and part of that is the continued availability of physical media.

Which, if you'll excuse a little cockiness, means I have given these issues some thought. The fact of the matter though is that I'm not really trying to offer a best guess at where we'll be by 2070. Rather, I'm writing a superhero story that takes place 'exactly as far in the future as it takes for me to be able to justify powered armor cops, standing field generators, and science discovering the astral plane. The only number I cared much about was 2076, because that's the tricentennial.

That isn't to say I'm not trying to build an exciting and coherent world. I do think about these things, and want the reader to enjoy what they learn about it. But they 'll only ever earn much attention when characters interact with them. And every issue, bit by bit, new things come out, are revealed, or I've just seen them in Popular Science and thought they were neat. Big things. For example, in plotting the newest Whitecoat mini, I realized that I've never mentioned the huge seawall protecting New York's boroughs from rising sea levels, or the carbon capture towers.

And for some childish points, I'd like to add that Batman Beyond is set sixty years in the future from the 'modern day' of the DCAU series, and has roughly the same tech level—right down to 'missing' texting. My tech is vastly different form theirs though, except for the flying car ;).

So rest assured that as I continue to write, more and more of the world will be revealed. And when 2070 comes around, I will be wrong, and that will be okay.