I did not read the article so apologies if these were mentioned already but I kind of liked the nods to '77 (and pre '77) tech.
e.g. the sneaker circuit - running carried data down the hall and passing it by hand through a (crack in a jammed) door.
Also, I really got the image that Jyn Erso was plopping an 8-track into that slot so she could enjoy some tunes (on the beach with her friend while waiting for the end of the world.)
Especially as he understands spoken language. That’s always bothered me, as has the question of why C3PO’s language skills are so poor. He sounds like a British tourist with a phrase book. And why does he have the same accent in every language?
And why is R2D2 male anyway?
All the cool people in the Star Wars Universe learn astromech in kindergarten. And apparently all the astromech droids understand english. Or whatever the hell you call “english” in the SWU.
Relevant XKCD: http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/
I just saw a deal on a 6TB hard drive for $220. It would take 171 of those for a Petabyte, so about $38,000 at a volume of .075 m^3 and a weight of 107 Kg.
That’s actually pretty reasonable.
Because typing in movies is boring? 
Really, this whole argument is just more evidence of how stylistically dissonant the prequels were. Rogue One fits into the look and feel of the original trilogy so much better than anything in episodes 1, 2, or 3.
My only point is at some point data starts to become unwieldy and managing it on to media becomes a much harder problem than just using a memory stick in your pocket.
The fact you have to spend close to $40,000 just to move the data would be an example of that.
although NOT the same fuel nozzle as 50 years ago, they changed the size in the 70s to make it harder to mistakenly put leaded fuel into a car with a catalytic converter
Fun fact: All the R2 units DO have voice chips. It’s just that they have a predilection for continually spewing filthy, racist, sexist jokes and limericks, so much so that their speakers have all been ripped out over the years leaving them only capable of a few meager beeps and boops.
Yeah I know. But the timeframe here is more like 20 to 40 years of continuous civil war, a difficult time to introduce new tech standards.
2001 did a great job of depicting computers in use. The crew got their info and entertainment from Pads they carried around and entered in data and then watched the news on the same pad and Hal’s memory bank was a form of plug in ‘crystal’ memory in slide out modules; all are decent representation of pre-personal computer era that the Movies got right.
Of course it helped that they listened to Arthur C Clark.
Or erryone’s racist af and that’s just what droids sound like to them.
“Sure, sure, little guy, bleep bloop indeed.” Sort of makes you appreciate 3PO’s bitchiness from a different angle.
The thing that amused me about Rogue One is that there’s no thought given to the physical media. The hologram message is given in a flash drive type of device, the Death Star plans are on a bulky hard drive… which is then copied into a thin metal card by the rebels.
Speaking of weird future data storge: I love the PADDs in Star Trek. They foreshadowed modern tablets by decades, with one crucial difference: they seem to be read-only, so Picard always has stacks of report-tablets on his desk, or if he wants to read an e-book, he needs one tablet per book. Even in Voyager, when they should have known better already, there’s a fun little scene where a tablet gets physically passed on to Janeway hand-to-hand.
I’ve long said that some good User Interface design would pretty much destroy the entire plot of most Star Wars movies. Also, handrails. They need to invent those in that galaxy far far away.
And maybe some grates over all those bottomless chasms?
Maybe there’s some Imperial equivalent of an ISO standard for data archives that requires the use of a particular obsolete storage media format? 
It makes sense, if you think about it. The Empire can afford big, bulky and rugged storage, they buy so many and have such extensive manpower that they care more about price and durability than size; but rebels and smugglers need something small and easy to hide (or to destroy, when compromising).
It’s a bit like the difference between people buying a laptop to use on a cubicle desk, and salesmen buying small ultrabooks to carry with them.
Because Star Wars is at its best when it’s essentially Dungeons & Dragons in Space.
That’s why, as nice as Rogue One is, I have so much more love for The Force Awakens.
Star Wars is myth, not sci-fi.
Who says he doesn’t? Just because it’s speaking a language the audience doesn’t understand doesn’t mean it’s not speaking.
Exactly. See also: I am Groot.
Is there a specific name for that trope, where the characters understand the “speaker” with nuance, but the audience doesn’t?
