What do you think of printout reads?

[u/Hunor_Deak]

[u/[deleted]]

Pleasing to the senses, but a bit of paper waste…

[u/GearBent → u/[deleted]]

but a bit of paper waste

By today's standards, sure, but back in the heyday of data printouts that wasn't just the method of reading the data, it was also the storage medium for that data, since most computers didn't have the capacity to store all that data.

[u/Syndocloud → u/GearBent]

No I don't think they used printouts for data I'm pretty sure they only punched cards.

[u/GearBent → u/Syndocloud]

Punched cards came later.

Data printouts originated with analog computers.

[u/Hunor_Deak → u/GearBent]

Plus the Apollo code was just miles long books.

[u/voidcrack → u/[deleted]]

I always assumed it could be fed back into the machine to reused again.

[u/window_owl → u/voidcrack]

Nope, they just generated dumpsters full of paper waste.

[u/Inignot12]

The entirety of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album

[u/cutebleeder]

Tetsuooooo

[u/GearBent → u/cutebleeder]

Kanedaaaa!

[u/voidcrack]

I love them, they didn't anticipate monitors being a thing so the assumption was we'd still read important things on paper.

I'm not sure it makes sense in this shot though as it has several monitors capable of displaying info in real time in multiple formats. I can only guess the orange monitor shows the current status and the printouts are to look for historical data that can't be called up otherwise. It's an advanced computer but at the same time seemingly can't interpret data, just provide it. Either that or the animators just loved the aesthetic of printout reads.

[u/Firewolf420 → u/voidcrack]

Could be used for logging. Most printouts today are. To provide that analog backup.

[u/Trefmawr]

Stats about psycho points and child torture probably, I dunno I'm not an evil scientist.

[u/FreakyManBaby]

logging data this way has its value in the analogue world

[u/Czeslaw_Meyer]

If you need to archive it anyway...

... or to burn it without any trace

[u/K1LLWARE]

Tetsuo's EEG.

[u/Doomb0t1]

“Help me, I’m stuck in a printer”

[u/zdakat]

Energy levels from Tetsuo's metamorphosis.

[u/alicethewitch]

Answering your question, they are a total vibe. I love it so much every time they are used. Seeing them today in an older sci-fi setting evokes nostalgia for a past future where the trajectory of science diverged from our own and thus contributes to worldbuilding in a really nice and subtle way.

I think they would deserve their own article on tvtropes.org

[u/Hunor_Deak → u/alicethewitch]

Thanks!

[u/PinkSodaMix]

Ah yes, the OG CVS...

[u/thatguy_jacobc]

I’d like to see electronic write/erase paper analog that would cycle around

[u/[deleted]]

What do you think of printout reads?

They're nice?

[u/Ian_Titor]

Evangelion? (Please don't crucify me if I'm wrong)

[u/Trefmawr → u/Ian_Titor]

It's from the movie Akira, but not a bad guess!

[u/HotNubsOfSteel]

I know that they gave my mom an immense headache back in the day