capeandcowllogs | Another time, another place...

WHO: Max (

couldmakeucare)
WHERE: ... Well I should have thought of that before. Let's say a coffeeshop to start.
WHEN: Let's say yesterday (Sunday) to avoid working hours
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Veronica asked Max to show her some tips and tricks with computers and handheld devices, and to talk about the world's divergent futures. Basically, future!girl geek out.

While Veronica was more than confident of her technical skills, she knew she was still at a disadvantage here in the city. Computer technology had evolved very differently here than in the particular version of earth she was from. In some ways, there were some things that were more primitive. But there were other things that were leaps and bounds ahead. She had learned a lot from the encryption codes Ghost sent her and had done a lot of taking things apart and putting them back together again--and of course the Internet was a limitless resource of information. But there was nothing like speaking to and learning from another expert, and Max seemed enthusiastic about sharing what she knew.

So she asked to meet Max downtown at the Central Perk Coffee Shop for some girl-geeking out. She sat there now, nursing a cappucino--she had learned not to drink so much coffee after some experimentation--and fiddling with her comm as she sat.

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Max would never turn down a chance to talk geek with someone else, and so Veronica's enthusiasm to meet up and talk tech had been one of the best things to happen since she'd arrived in this city. It sounded like her tech had developed differently, and comparing notes was bound to be interesting.

She showed up a little bit late, still not used to the city, and slid into the seat across from Veronica, grinning apologetically.

"Sorry, I still get lost around here pretty easily," she said. "How are you doing?"

"No problem. I admit to making rampant use of the GPS system they've got on these things." She pointed at her comm. "It's not so much the city itself, it's the all the people. The streets never look the same."

She took another sip. "Anyway, I'm doing alright. World hasn't tried to end in, like, three weeks now. I understand that's a good record. You?"

"You're right," Max said, and grinned. "Yeah, I tried the GPS system and it promptly led me down a dead end alleyway. They can be so untrustworthy."

Flagging down a waitress, Max ordered a coffee before turning her attention back to Veronica. "That's slightly disturbing to know," she said dryly. "I hate the world ending. Things are always so messy afterwards. I'm doing fine, I guess. Settling in and whatever." She shrugged. "It's weird, but I'm adjusting."

"Yeah, well, they're never perfect. I think I heard it snicker once when I turned in the wrong direction."

Veronica asked for a bagel while the waitress was there, then turned back to Max. "Tell me about it, the world ended pretty hard about 200 years before my time. Obviously not enough for there to be no survivors though. But the world's still mostly one big mess to clean up. Relatively speaking, it's been a lot easier here."

"How rude of it," Max said with a grin.

So her world had ended? No wonder her tech had developed differently. "My world's been pretty lucky - we never actually ended. Just a lot of threats of it. Probably explains the disparity in tech, I'm going to guess."

"Sort of. Best I can figure out, using my best technical terms borrowed from old sci-fi holovids, is our timeline diverged from at least this Earth's in the 1950s. More effort was spent on developing nuclear technology than on miniaturization or the microchip. And there was almost no focus on display technology.

"This isn't to say my ancestors didn't have low tech computers, but in different ways. Take the PipBoy. It was the height of computer miniaturization technology where I come from--a wrist mounted computer more than twice the size of this thing," she held up the smartphone-like comm, "and with only a monochrome display. But, it still has excellent memory storage, able to hold the same amount of data as a full size terminal, and with the right set up, has programs sophisticated enough to monitor the wearer's health, down to his levels of hydration and sleep deprivation. And because we have not only fission batteries but even microfusion power sources, they or any other computerized device or robot can run hundreds of years on one power cell."

She spread her hands. "So the thing is--it's not so much less, but different. Things like the graphic processors they've got here? I've never seen anything like'em. But they're almost requisite here, so if I want to learn to build and rebuild, I need to know what to look for to pick the right hardware and avoid incompatibilities."

"Huh," Max said, considering. "That's a really interesting set of divergences. It sounds like you guys even had a couple advantages over us in some ways. As for fission batteries, that's incredible. Fission is still kind of a big deal back home for me, and we've had a lot of trouble with it."

She took a sip of coffe and nodded her head. "Yeah, you're definitely going to have problems integrating the two types of systems, I imagine. But I bet it could be done, with the right equipment and the right brains." She grinned, excited. "Do you have any design specifications for hardware from your home? I'd like to take a look at it, see what matches up with what I know and what doesn't."

"Well, the problem is that ALL kind of nuclear technology were advanced. The whole 'world ending' thing was a nuclear holocaust. So... there was a big price to pay. Is it possible to develop the energy potential without developing the weapons? Probably. But given human nature, unlikely." She stopped and chewed her lip a moment. "Sorry, that just went rather dark."

She smiled. "I don't have full specs, but I've been trying to jury rig a holodisc reader, so I can show you what I do have, and I can write up some stuff as well from memory." She waved toward Max. "And what was your world like? If I remember right, you're from ahead of this time as well."

"Oh, ouch," Max said, wincing in sympathy. "That sounds pretty crappy." She shook her head. "No, you're absolutely right. No matter how good technology gets, people just seem so insistent on using it for beating each other up. Or blow each other up, one way or the other."

Max nodded and smiled. "That sounds great, I'd love to see anything you've got." She considered, wondering what was important and what wasn't. "I am from further forward in time, yeah. I think our memory capacity is probably on par with yours, maybe better? I'd have to see yours to tell. We've got really advanced VR systems, really excellent graphics work, and - well, a bunch of other stuff. I could probably integrate a lot of my tech into yours, with the right equipment and some time."

"I am really glad to hear you're aware of that. It worries me when people get all excited over tech and don't think about what the consequences might be."

She nodded. "Well, my stuff's back at my apartment. Like I said, it's all bits and pieces, but you can see it for yourself. I can go get it, or you're welcome to come over, if you don't mind a mess."

Another time, another place...

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