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e-tech in Fantasy worlds

These days integration of desktops, laptops, hand-helds, smart phones, smart cars, smart pants etc etc seems to be the thing. Current blandishments on my wake-up screen put me in mind of Necrosquishy's copycat version:

"One Account. One Password. One place to rule it all and in the darkness bind them."

RSimpkinuk57 wrote:
These days integration of desktops, laptops, hand-helds, smart phones, smart cars, smart pants etc etc seems to be the thing. Current blandishments on my wake-up screen put me in mind of Necrosquishy's copycat version:

"One Account. One Password. One place to rule it all and in the darkness bind them."

I think the smart appliances are attempting to rule me. When they updated the appliances in my apartment I ended up with a smart doorbell. which is cool because I can tell no matter where I am who is at my door. However it also goes off when people walk past my door which is all the time so very annoying. I also have a smart refrigerator that lets me know when I run out of things. As it scans the bar codes of anything that goes in. However since I mostly eat fresh vegetables and meat which do not have bar codes, the only things it tells me I am out of is beer, milk and Ice Cream and I know when I run out of those things before the refrigerator does Tongue
Smart pants what do they do? tell you when you should use the restroom, that you did not zip up your fly, etc.
Elf

I too, am curious about smart pants. Do they make fashion choices for you? Or is their function more draconian, like not allowing you to wear white after Labor Day? Or maybe so other people can call the owner of the smart pants a "smarty pants"? Ha! I bet that's exactly the purpose of smart pants!

Although...hopefully they set themselves on fire also, whenever the owner of the pants tells a lie. Probably not though, as everyone in Washington D.C. would spontaneously combust.

Liar Liar, pants on fire! Big smile

My skin is the opposite of clothing then. As it is very dark during the warm times and much paler during the cool times. Maybe wearing white has to do with contrast between outfits and skin color. Insane
Elf

The whole wearing white thing in the autumn and winter was due to people being snooty boots, which should really be "smart" boots. Imagine, the boots could give you directions and suggest snooty comments to make about passer by.

Well, also I guess as etiquette, it was supposed to be symbolic like, "We're putting away our nice summer outfits to make way for sucky winter time". Or you know, all those vacationers lost their tans.

kathycf wrote:
The whole wearing white thing in the autumn and winter was due to people being snooty boots, which should really be "smart" boots. Imagine, the boots could give you directions and suggest snooty comments to make about passer by.

Well, also I guess as etiquette, it was supposed to be symbolic like, "We're putting away our nice summer outfits to make way for sucky winter time". Or you know, all those vacationers lost their tans.

All shoes and boots should be smart. It would cut down on people who ask me directions all the time and I could throw out the old shirt I wear sometimes that reads "I am not a Google Map" Not really sure why people always ask me directions even when I am lost myself.
The combination of smart boots and smart pants could also be very useful. The boots could suggest snooty comments, and if you where to use them and the person called you a smarty pants, the pants could say "Yes I am, what would you like to know?"

I only misplace my tan for a few months I never loose it totally. Then again being a cyclist I am never totally tan anyway, more multi colored Tongue

News item from 18th September. (I heard only a short mention at the end of morning radio news. The following comes from a Google hit on one UK news website I found.)

"Intelligent trousers powered by artificial muscles could be available to give strength and support in as little as seven years – providing an alternative to wheelchairs and mobility scooters to millions of Britons who have difficulty walking. A prototype model of the trousers was unveiled at the Science Festival in Hull yesterday. The garment, which has cost £2m to develop so far, is based on a system of ‘bubble artificial muscles’, which are activated by inflating bubbles using an electric motor.

"AIDED BY GRAPHENE. The muscles are boosted by a series of graphene parts that harden when support is needed for the knees and other body parts and soften when it is not. The overall system is powered by battery powered and guided with a controlling device – although the designers hope the trousers would eventually become ‘smart’ so that they would carry out their functions automatically. One such function allows the user to drop his or her trousers instantly if they get caught short. More generally the trousers help prevent the wearer from falling and to sit and stand – actions which typically require more muscle power. 'Our dream is to make our devices ubiquitous,' Jonathan Rossiter, of the University of Bristol, said he was hopeful that many of the 10m Britons who are elderly or disabled and have difficulty walking could benefit from the trousers. The technology could also potentially be applied to tights."

Yep, I read about those trousers as well, they're inspired by the Wallace and Gromit clay animation The Wrong Trousers, the garb has been dubbed “the right trousers”, link provided by The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/11/the-right-trousers-wallace-and-gromit-mobility-aid-robotic

Would later versions be programmable I wonder, as in send them to do the shopping while you're having fun doing the household chores, hehehe, the deluxe version would be able to go to your place of work and do your shift for you as well, crikey, the mind boggles at what they could eventually do, bedroom activities spring to mind. Insane

That is a very interesting idea for people with mobility problems, now I feel a bit schmucky for making fun of them. I think it's due to the word "smart" that gets thrown around so much lately. Smart this and smart that. I can't omit the "smart" microwaves that turn into cameras at night and get up to who knows what sort shenanigans.

Just ask DARPA the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and various private and military designers around the world. Some ideas for pants or exoskeletons to help people walk have been around for 128 years. There are several exoskeletons developed by Japanese companies to help both paraplegics and quadriplegics stand, walk and move about somewhat independently. The only thing that is really lacking is a suit/brain interface, but that is also being worked on independently. I found the following very interesting, and there are some amazing things in the references and external links.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_exoskeleton

bare_elf wrote:

All shoes and boots should be smart. It would cut down on people who ask me directions all the time and I could throw out the old shirt I wear sometimes that reads "I am not a Google Map" Not really sure why people always ask me directions even when I am lost myself.


There's a great technique used by all of us old codgers: Give directions in terms of things that aren't there any more.

"Just go down this street and make a left at the corner where the hardware store used to be. Then carry on past the old farm (they built a whole subdivision there), and when you get to the big house where the Smiths used to live ..."

It sounds helpful, but of course, it isn't. Evil

I find those kind of directions helpful Wink

Dwarf