Lit Thoughts on Communication Technology

The use of communications tech is getting a bit interesting in these new books, partly because our own tech is changing. It's a topic that's been on my mind since Tarkin came out and now with the newer novels like Bloodlines, it's starting to come to the forefront because I think some of the authors are wondering how to use it. I suspect this is one of those conversations that's going on behind closed doors at Disney/Lucasfilm. Questions along the lines of: How exactly does the HoloNet work? What exactly does a datapad do (and can't do)? Who controls communication? Are there laws? How does email work? Are there search engines like Google? Is there a Youtube equivalent? Is there a Wookieepedia?

(very very very very minor book spoilers below -- nothing about the plots, just the tech)

So in Tarkin there was a passage about civilian witnesses to a disaster who began video-taping the event with their recorders to share on the HoloNet (before the Imperial government itself was able to verify some of them). This strongly implies that the HoloNet is NOT controlled by the government, and can be accessed by civilians. Furthermore, these civilians can and do use it as we do today -- to upload videos.

Then we get into the matter of the recording devices themselves -- what are they? Datapads? Comlinks? Something in between?

Claudia Gray seemed to be juggling this idea in Bloodlines: throughout the story people are handing each other physical datapads to get things done or transmit information. This is done especially in the senate, as well among Leia and her peers. They just hand datapads around. Sometimes they've got multiple datapads at once, or on their desks.

I began wondering about this: it's like if people started handing you their flashdrives and never asked for them back. Where do they go? Do they get returned? Is there a repository for datapads in each building for when you're done looking at them, like 3D glasses in a movie theater?

There's also -- referenced in some of the new books, slightly in A New Dawn but very direct in a few scenes in Bloodlines -- where HoloNet and comlink access seems to be an issue. Like you have to be near a planet to access the HoloNet and get your news and mail. That never seemed to be an issue in the movies... unless... they weren't using the HoloNet in the movies, but something else?

And what will be really interesting is if a future author adds a Wikipedia-like factor to the HoloNet (this might have happened in a story I haven't read yet... I haven't been up-to-date with the new comics). Because in the novels so far, the characters ask a lot of basic questions -- even standing on Coruscant, Eriadu, Ryloth or other populated planets -- and have to find the answer from either someone else or on their own. Or -- in one case -- traveling to another planet where there are physical books in a library. Hmmm.

So the GFFA communication tech is a little quirky. It's sort of fun to see it's development, but I'm curious how much Story Group and the authors are discussing this behind the scenes.

 

I haven't read a lot of the new canon novels (just Dark Disciple so far), but just from your description it sounds like Story Group is hardly coordinating this at all. Free holonet access one novel, need to be near a planet for the holonet the next, and excessive datapad usage in another (galactic senators must be worried about those Zahn-coined slicers).

Perhaps the Senate has a pool of New Republic issued datapads that they are required to keep info on (and not use unsecured devices). Since the datapads are the property of the Republic, Senators don't have to worry about returning them, etc. since they don't personally own them.

Slightly off-topic, but I always wondered when I was younger why Leia and the Rebels didn't just post the Death Star plans onto the Holonet. Darth Vader's plans to recover the plans would be rendered obsolete, since by then millions of people will have accessed them. Real world reasons I'm guessing that since the Internet didn't exist when Lucas wrote Star Wars, this idea didn't occur to him. With the Legends scenario of the Holonet being Imperial-controlled, I accepted that as an in-universe explanation. But if new canon has the Holonet unregulated by the Empire...

 

I think part of what's going on with the datapad thing - which I remember being brought up previously in the old Hav To Take A Trip thread - is that people don't seem entirely certain whether they're tablet-analogues (as the name suggests to modern readers) or "spacey" notepads (which was presumably the original concept).

 

ANH makes it seem like there's way less communication technology than what we saw in the other films and the EU. The only hologram is a recording in a droid, nobody knows anything about The Force, and there's "data tapes." Tarkin has lots of conversations by radio and the leader of the Dantooine scouts tells Tarkin the results of his mission in person.

 

Well, nobody knowing anything about the Force is supposedly due to Imperial law. "Data tapes" could just be their terminology (although we know the real world reasons were that laser/digital/quantum etc media hadn't been at large back in 1977). Tarkin having sensitive info given to him in person isn't necessarily low-tech--it could be Tarkin was so afraid of technical communications being compromised/hacked that he demanded these reports in person (this has been done in the real world).

The prequel trilogy had conversations by radio also (Qui-Gon talking to Obi-Wan by comlink on Tatooine) even though the special effects budget could easily have provided hologram conversations by this time.

 

I was talking about what was implied in 1977, but thank you anyway.

 

anakinfansince1983 I was just going to mention the "Skype" thing. I guess it was something like Vader and Ozzel in ESB, I imagine, only Vader/Ozzel communicated from Vader's chamber to the bridge, not from planet to planet. And yet, while in some of the later Legends stuff it was used, in the NEU nobody has sent "text messages" so far, from what I can remember–not even in Lost Stars, where you might expect that sort of thing.

Oh, speaking of Lost Stars, in that book I seem to recall Thane and Ciena communicating via some kind of hologram "phone booth" at one point.

 

In the Star Wars universe, it seems that technology is as common and disposable as paper. In fact, it may be even more common than paper, since "virtually nobody wrote any longer".

 

As far back as Heir to the Empire they were basically tablets or laptops, with everyone having one datapad and the USB equivalent being datacards. Information was stored on datacards which were passed around from person to person to insert into their datapads. I don't recall any old EU authors beyond Traviss and Golden misunderstanding that and having a character with multiple datapads on their desk, but I could be wrong.

Interestingly enough, the original SW film did have the Rebels receive a transmission of the Death Star plans --- information being sent wirelessly --- but in Heir everyone was giving each other datacards instead of sending information as attachments in Facebook Messenger. Sure, it was sensitive military information that they didn't want anyone intercepting, but also Zahn couldn't have predicted wifi and smartphones and how pervasive they would become.

Yeah, in Zahn's trilogy, datacards didn't seem like something that you would get back once you gave it away. I read the trilogy about fourteen years ago and probably saw them as analogous to CD-Rs at the time. Burn one, give it away, and still have a big pile of others.

 

I think a floppy disk is a better analogue then a CD.

 

Bloodline says that radiation can disrupt communication, although I forget if the passage refers to the HoloNet specifically.

The use of the HoloNet in Bloodline actually reminded me of its use in the early Bantam era, where there was stuff like it being a big deal that Palpatine's shuttle had HoloNet access, and how Courtship has HoloNet communication being expensive long-distance and only big warships having HoloNet access.

 

Yeah if there's one thing SW should do is update to better reflect contemporary technology.

Would like to see the GFFA version of Facebook. Not even kidding

 

This has been done in the past with somewhat bizarre results. For example, Vader's holonet address was officially revealed as vader@imperial.emp in the PC game X-Wing Alliance.

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I hope not.

 

Did people give their floppy disks away? I think I only had one, and I hung onto it like a prized possession.

Ah, the internet in the mid-nineties. So full of accurate predictions about the future.



"I predict that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings in Europe will own them."

 

All the time, back then it was way easier then sending an e-mail with the files/pictures/other.

 

Why not? I would imagine social networking is something pretty much any civilization would eventually come up with. Makes more sense than having an N64 controller on your chest as the controls for your life support sith armor.

Or physically transporting stolen plans instead of copying them and emailing them to the Rebel base with your Galaxy Droid 4's roaming interstellar data plan.

 

They were above Tatooine; the coverage is pretty spotty there. It's a backwater after all.

 

If the Rebels emailed the Death Star plans to Yavin, Vader would have tracked down the IP address so fast it wouldn't even have been funny. Not to mention basically broadcasting to the Empire that the Tantive IV is a Rebel ship (although Vader figured this out anyway as seen in the movie).

Leia (tries to post Death Star plans onto Forcebook anonymously)

Forcebook - Timestamp: Taungsday, Elona 3, 2300 hrs, 0 BBY; Location: Alderaan

Leia: (tries to delete post, but the Imperial slicer team already has a copy from the cache).

 

ISIS has twitter accounts.

 

Because we would need to "update" the setting every time we develop some new kind of communication devise or method. SW is also retro-SF to me and should not feel to modern IMO, now I have no problem with words like Coruscant or Kuat having communication tech similar to ours but that every planet has it or that most Luke Everybody can have online with people on other planets feels a bit wrong to me.