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I was just listening to This Week in Google, a podcast with Leo Laporte. They were discussing Google’s Wave. If you have not heard of this, it’s because it is mostly for developers and special invites only right now – i.e. Beta. Anyway, Google gets kudos from all of us SF geeks for using references to the Firefly TV series in the system messages and errors for the program.
During the podcast they propose that the name Wave was also taken from Firefly. Which is undoubtedly true and also cool. However, the “waves” in firefly were coming from “The Signal” and they were not some hyperspace communication devices. They were RADIO WAVES, people! Old-fashioned radio waves. Whedon just dropped the word Radio, because that was not futuristic enough, I’ll wager.
I understood what they were referring to back when I first watched the series. I am a Amateur Radio Operator, after all. Why they didn’t just say radio, was a mystery to me then, due to the whole backward look and feel of the entire space opera series. Of course, radio was in the future for the American Old West.
I’m not saying it’s not cool to just say “wave”. If that makes you think of some shiny new tech. I’m just saying, it’s RADIO WAVES.
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