By ChaosEternus
Thanks to LONA of the BSGWS for Beta'ing this fic for me.
Chapter 11"It shouldn't be possible, I mean, yes, in different cultures advancement will proceed according to different motivating forces but theoretically not to such a massive extent." Baltar words made me grin as we walked swiftly through the corridors to the portside Launch bay where Tempest was currently stored.
The flaw in his argument was evident even to me.
"Well," I said slowly, giving Donally a lot of time to keep up with the translation, "that depends really, but in your case you have a society in which computer development was almost completely stifled during the cylon wars. From what you have said, the gloves never came firmly off which meant your computer research never developed as fast as it could."
I paused, so Donally could catch up as I contemplated how to get the final point across, "Whereas in our society there was never any restrictions on computer research, and no restrictions on where computers were placed."
"Well, yes I can see how that would lead to your computer technology being more advanced, but to the extent you claim?"
I rolled my eyes, for a supposedly brilliant mind, Baltar could be so dense.
"Home computing. Baltar, imagine how much commercial interest the ability to have a PC in your home would generate if you had no forms, no 'social rating' required to own one."
"Again, point in your favour but still I can't see it, I mean computers are only really good for office work and you do not require a particularly powerful computer for that."
At which point the launch bay crew got to see three earthmen collapsing in laughter at the entrance to the bay, something which made Baltar look very off put.
Though I suppose it made sense, if computers were controlled items restricted to those who had official need for one, well there would be pretty much no market for PC games and the like and therefore most homes would never had a need, though want might be a better word, for a PC and the sheer volume of money available for R&D we have on Earth just wouldn't be there. I mean, the bulk of computers on Earth have their office software used once a month or less but their PC games?
Daily usage, I can guarantee you.
"Well," I was finally able to continue, "your money for research comes from commercial, military and government right?"
"Well, if you take commercial as big businesses, yes."
"Right, well where we come from they don't bother. They know they could never hope to match the sheer volume of money that comes from the home market, they tend to just use off the shelf components developed for the home market now."
It didn't take a genius to note that Baltar, not to mention Adama and Roslin weren't buying it.
This was starting to get a bit old.
"Look, assume there is no restrictions on PC use, what do you think the first thing most people are going to put on their PC's?"
"Well, office applications and the like."
Roslin and Adama rolled eyes in tune with us after that, but it was Adama who pointed out the obvious, "Games and porn."
"Bingo!" I answered, "and nothing stresses a computer more then running games programs because the programmers always try to make the game as good as they can, stressing the components and encouraging the purchase of a more powerful PC, one that can run the games with all the bells and whistles actually turned on. Of course, more powerful PC's come on the market and the games programmers automatically build their games around the higher specification so they can produce a better, more realistic game. That encourages the buying of a newer PC and increasing the amount of money for R&D"
I paused, "And porn just keeps the antivirus and firewall people happy, not to mention the bandwidth it chews up."
"Getting a bit cynical aren't you, Boss?" was Dafydd's response to that, but as far as I was concerned, it was true. Cynical doesn't always mean wrong after all, more often than not, it meant exactly the opposite.
We'd arrived at the Tempest.
"Dafydd, open her up and check out everything on the command deck. Donally and I will break out the workstations."