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Time Machine library database
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- from The Time Machine (2002)
- Created by Simon Wells
- Distributed by Warner Brothers
- Posted byCritical Commons Manager
In 2030, library databases will be controlled by ironic humanoid interfaces
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Time Machine library database
by Critical Commons ManagerThe Time Machine depicts the user interface for a library database as a sarcastic, judgmental humanoid figure
The otherwise unremarkable 2002 remake of H.G. Wells' Time Machine includes this sequence with an African-American library interface avatar. Set in the year 2030, a time traveler from 1899 attempts to access information from the public library but is thwarted by derision and sarcasm from a judgmental, elitist interface personality. As a depiction of interface design, this scene is nearly unique among movie sci-fi imaginings of future information systems. While affect is generally elided from interface design (both real and imaginary), it is even more rarely positioned as an inhibiting factor in a user's ability to harvest data from the presumed digital repositories that will be operating in the future.