Operator Incompatibility: Difference between revisions

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Line 1: {{trope}} In [[Speculative Fiction]], as in [[Real Life]], technology is designed with certain [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That!\|unquestioned assumptions]]. The user has the normal number of appendages. The user is within a certain generous range of sizes. The user can withstand so many G's of acceleration. The user can shoot lightning from her hands, or commune telepathically with computers...just like everyone else in the builder's species. In certain settings, [[Finagle's Law]] ensures these assumptions will cause disaster. Sure, sometimes it's a bonus, or even a built-in feature, that the alien saboteurs can't use the [[Artifact of Doom]] properly, but usually it's just a pain. Line 30: * In the [[Liaden Universe]], Val Con, a guy who's around 5'5, tries to operate a spaceship designed for a larger species of human. He gets seriously injured from this. * One of the characters in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s [[Worldwar]] books is Kassquit, a human woman raised by the alien, lizardlike Race. She must wear artificial "fingerclaws" to be able to use the Race's computers. * The ''[[My Teacher Is an Alien]]'' series involves thousands of alien species living peacefully on one massive space station. This leads to some rather complex ~~issues--for~~issues—for example, when the human protagonist first needs to use a bathroom he has to answer a series of rather personal questions to the computer, causing serious discomfort before he finds a toilet that will actually work for his anatomy. * Similar to the situation in ''The Colors of Space'', the Tyr in C S Friedman's ''The Madness Season'' claim that FTL travel can only be performed by them because the method that they use causes a state of absolute terror for any other living thing in hyperspace. {{spoiler\|It is later uncovered that there is more than one method of FTL travel, but the Tyr suppressed those in order to maintain control of the galaxy.}} * In Anne Mason's ''The Stolen Law'', Vallusians have six fingers on each hand. This leaves our human protagonist unable to work the gun they want her to train with; more seriously, when an important piece of technology is sabotaged, it reveals the existence of a Vallusian traitor, as none of the other known races would have been capable of manipulating the necessary controls. Line 40: == [[Video Games]] == * The [[Halo~~\|Halos~~]]s can only be activated by {{spoiler\|humans}} because they are descended from the [[Precursors\|Forerunners]] who built them. * The [[Fallout: New Vegas\|Pimp Boy 3 Billion]] isn't designed to be used by [[Double Standard\|female Couriers]], and will always be held at an awkward angle. [[Sarcasm Mode\|Way to go, Bethesda]]. Line 51: == [[Real Life]] == * CAPTCHAs, those things where you have to prove that you're a human and not a bot by entering the text from an image, have quite a difficult time distinguishing between bots and blind ~~humans-- because~~humans—because speech synthesizers and Braille displays can't render images. For this reason, most CAPTCHA-protected sites include an option to have the characters spoken at you (which would benefit the blind but not bots). * A remarkable number of tools assume (often with dangerous consequences) that the user is right-handed. ** This includes nearly all bullpup firearms (magazine well behind the trigger), as attempting to fire them left-handed will fling red-hot cartridge cases into the user's face or down their collar. Many newer bullpup weapons can be adjusted for left-handed firing in the field, but heaven help you if you then pick up the wrong rifle by mistake, or a right-handed soldier picks up yours. Line 59: [[Category:Pages Needing Wicks]] [[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]] [[Category:~~Operator Incompatibility~~{{PAGENAME}}]]