How fast can we communicate with light and radio waves?
skullsinthestars.com
I’m pretty forgiving about reading mildly inaccurate physics stuff, especially when it’s in science fiction stories, but every once in a while I read a real zinger that nearly causes me…

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/1916423

This insightful blog post seems to refer to this article. I hope the article is an isolated case. Although it’s undeniable that scientific illiteracy is spreading.

  • joshuanozzi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    A few points here:

    1. The room lights have to be on.
    2. A light has to be on on your device.
    3. I’m guessing the lights have to be LEDs to get the kind of switching speeds for the data rates mentioned and keeping the power clean enough so that minor fluctuations in circuit power from its own operation (a paper was published about exfiltration of data based on power indicator LED fluctuations) will make the devices expensive as hell.
    4. Maybe near-visible-light would work better but my guess is this tech won’t be practical enough to have broad consumer appeal in the face of the almost certainly high price. Even in the always-lit office environment, you still have people walking around with visible lights on their phones and laptops. I suppose it could be download-only, relying on radio for the uplink but there goes half your usefulness and you still have to maintain radio/WiFi infrastructure. Likely true anyway, considering phones in pockets and bags needing to stay connected.
      • joshuanozzi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Finally, basement nerds won’t be pasty any more!

        Seriously, I was more thinking infrared. I don’t know about you but I’m old enough to remember (and to have “enjoyed” helping support coworkers attempts to use) the infrared fad mainly for sending things to printers by sitting the two devices really close together. So fiddly I’d rather just decisively plug in a cable.

        • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Yes, I actually remember when (infrared) TV remotes started to circulate…