Thanks. I suppose it could be its own platform. I guess I felt HN community already provides good curation, just needed needed one extra filter pass :)
in that its lovely and highly functional? sure. what disturbs me is that the lit map is wrapped around this large empty room. but the operator would get the same angular view if the whole thing was just somewhat smaller and wrapped more closely around the desk. the use of space here seems extravagant and kind of unsettling
The central room feels large today, but I bet it was the right size for 1930s technology.
The space requirement comes from two things: the diagrams on the panels are actually fairly complex with lots of controls thwt fit mostly inside the diagrams themselves. Operators in the room should be able to scan the whole diagram easily from a central position.
Thw size of the room then becomes a requirement because all the panels need to be oriented inwards, not occluded and they can't shrink down too much because the controls need to fit.
Backside of the panels. This might help you understand why the amount of space used is not at all extravagant. We're spoiled with our disposable, tiny electronics. Those things were meant to last decades.
The second part affirms that it is centralized. There is nothing wrong with that except saying that because you can leave the community and go elsewhere, it is ipso facto decentralized.
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