Science outstrips Science-Fiction. Again.

[gridlore]

A few weeks ago we picked up all five seasons of Babylon 5 at CostCo. I've been reveling in them a few episoides at a time (Great Maker, I need to do a Centauri costume) and have reached Season 3.

Where I found a funny.

Passing Through Gethsemane is one of the strongest of the stand-alone episodes of B5, in my opinion. The story concerns the order of monks who have come to B5 to study alien religions. Specifically, Brother Edward, who experiences a series of events that make him question who he really is.

The funny comes when Edward asks the computer to do a search on the following parameters: A black rose, the phrase "Death Walks Among You", the name Charlie or Charles, and a murdered woman. The computer announces that the search will take four hours.

I guess Google went out of business.

Speaking of Google, go there and enter the following: Zodiac, Benicia, San Francisco Chronicle

What comes up, how many hits, and how long did it take? Assuming that B5 has a complete library database, the phrase alone should have led Edward to the answers he was seeking.

Just amusing that they would put up with four-hour searches.

Comments

[chadu.livejournal.com]

I think the combo here of the civilian means and methods, plus the non-Gold Channel priority, plus the size of EA databases, plus the taychon-signal lag, plus the final sort, is what gives you four hours.

Note also Brother Edward didn't restrict the search to something like "within the past two decades", so he's searching through ALL of human history on Earth in addition to all of the history on the EA colonies.

[seawasp]

Given other things we've seen in B5, he might be wise to NOT limit the search that way, too.