2018-08-23

buried in sheets of colorful glowing glass

Anyone remember those scenes from ST:TNG that showed the captain doing paperwork at his desk? He was using a display terminal to read text and to do vtc, AND he was switching between half a dozen data tablets? Remember how conceptually silly that was?
My edc backpack contains a laptop, a tablet, two phones, and one and sometimes two eink reader tablets. My nightstand has two eink tablets on it, and charger points for the phones.
I just saw a coworker sitting at a table in this building talking on one phone, reading email on her laptop, consulting text on a tablet, and taking notes on a ReMarkAble tablet.
The conference room I'm in right has all my edc gear, plus a yuuge 75inch vtc display on the wall, with attached steerable camera, and a glass tablet on the table for controlling the vtc. Plus a multipoint polycom rig on table. And plus an Alexa for Business terminal on the table. Even the lightswitch isn't real, it is a multiibutton scene controller. At least the clock on the wall is a physical moving-hands analog, but I know it gets set and sync remotely via some wiring coming out of wall behind it. And the six 5'x8' white glass whiteboards lining the walls are not "smart". Yet.
We are within striking distance of ending the blizzard of paper that used to engulf work, but now we're being buried in sheets of colorful glowing glass.