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Plug N Play Technology: Difference between revisions
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A similar phenomenon occurs when two or more computers need to establish a network to communicate with each other. When the intrepid [[Wagon Train to the Stars]] makes their first contact with [[Starfish Alien|Starfish Aliens]] from halfway across the universe, nobody ever stops to figure out ''how'' those electromagnetic waves emenating from each other's ships are supposed to represent a communications channel (assuming it even ''is'' a communications channel at all) ... or how those aliens suddenly managed to hack into the ship's computers (bypassing whatever passwords and encryption) to steal a copy of all their technical schematics and tactical blueprints. Their starships must run on [[Plug N Play Technology]]!
This is obviously not the case in [[Real Life]]: Without an agreement for everyone to follow fixed technical standards, computers would not be able to tell their precious 0's and 1's apart from each other in the datastream -- compatibility is the exception, not the default. You can't open or shut your closet door by plugging a computer into it, or pick up FM stations on an AM radio. US-made TVs aren't built for the higher voltage levels of European electrical outlets (or the PAL broadcast encoding); you can't play [[Game Cube]] discs on your [[
[[Plug N Play Technology]] borders on [[Forgotten Trope]] territory these days with the widespread adoption of certain technical standards being something that we take for granted, even when it only enables certain kinds of communication between certain kinds of electronic devices.
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