someone: so, talk about dating a book
someone: I’m reading a star trek novel written in the early 90s
someone: and captain kirk says “well, starbase installed an extra 80 terabytes of storage in the main computer, and I expect it to be filled by the time we finish this mission”
someone: 80 terabytes? really?
Al: Well how much storage does the Enterprise need, really?
someone: well, if you think about it… I can fill a 1TB drive with porn that’s not even at full rez
someone: if you’re doing a scientific study, you’ll need huge video and image files
someone: all sorts of renders, and video renders are GIGANTIC
someone: I could imagine 80TB would fill up fast
Al: you’re forgetting 23rd century compression is much better
someone: yes, I suppose you have a point there
someone: it’s a really interesting book — Kirk leaves Dr. McCoy in command of the enterprise to go on a diplomatic mission, then disappears — but that totally threw me
someone: last time I read it I didn’t even have a >100gb drive
Al: Point is if the novel was written that long ago, Terabytes were unheard of
someone: yes, that’s true
someone: I guess that’s why in TNG they use the ubiquitous “gigaquad” measurement
Al: in the age of megabyte sized drives
Al: the author was attempting to flex geek cred
Al: (often with hilarious results)