Timeline for Do we know if toasters exist?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 13 at 22:30 | comment | added | Flater | @AndresF.: Googling it for a while now, there seems to be consensus that the original BSG did not use "toaster" and only using "tin can", which makes Star Trek TNG (1989) the earliest concrete example of "toaster" as a shorthand way of calling a robot an appliance. 1 2 However, like other posters as well, I'm certain I heard this used earlier, but it was likely in an off-hand way that is harder to trace. | |
| Jan 27 at 18:33 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @Flater I was just rebutting the notion that toast requires a toaster, not talking about the specific situation. | |
| Jan 26 at 12:30 | comment | added | Flater | @LorenPechtel: The BSG universe has never shown to have replicated food or similar scifi concepts w.r.t. how food is prepared. You can't just use something from one universe to disprove something in another, especially when they're this different. | |
| Jan 25 at 19:37 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | I must disagree with the concept that the existence of toast implies the existence of toasters. Star Trek--food made by replicators. Yes, the pattern had to come from somewhere but that could have been long ago, toasters now being extinct. And you can toast without a toaster. | |
| Jan 25 at 19:34 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @dan04 Also, US electric kettles are inferior to British ones. This is because you can't draw as much power from a standard US outlet as from a standard British one. | |
| Jan 25 at 19:23 | comment | added | dan04 | Similar to how a "lamp" can operate by combustion (of a fuel like vegetable oil, kerosene, or natural gas), or with electricity (incandescent, fluorescent, or LED). On an alien planet, it might refer to something completely different, like a glowing crystal. The purpose of the thing is to produce light, and the exact mechanism of doing so is irrelevant. | |
| Jan 25 at 19:18 | comment | added | dan04 | @komodosp: A "toaster" could be a translation convention for the audience. Perhaps this society doesn't have Earth-style "bread" produced by grinding Pooideae-family grains into flour, mixing it with water, kneading the dough, and baking it. But it's not too far-fetched that they'd have some staple food that is browned by a heat-induced Maillard reaction, a process which can reasonably be called "toasting". Which makes the machine that produces it a "toaster". | |
| Jan 25 at 18:20 | comment | added | dan04 | @komodosp: In the US, electric kettles are sold at pretty much every shop that sells small kitchen appliances. It's just that most Americans don't see the need for one, since a stove or microwave is good enough for the purpose of boiling water, so we don't feel the need to have a dedicated device. We don't have the same tea-drinking culture as the British. Coffee is the more popular hot beverage, and so many Americans do own coffeepots. | |
| Jan 25 at 18:09 | comment | added | Darren | @Therac Spoiler Alert it’s actually in the very distant past. | |
| Jan 25 at 13:42 | comment | added | Andres F. | @Flater I'm not going to press the issue, but the examples you mentioned aren't conclusive. For one, as a scifi trope, do you have an example that clearly predates the re-imagined BSG? And the other use, a computer that is a "toaster", clearly makes reference to the heating capabilities of a toaster, so it's not ANY old clunky device used as a comparison, it's specifically a toaster! It also makes sense that they have roughly similar shapes (these are PCs of the era, a mainframe is never a toaster). Finally, the look in BSG cannot be discounted as an in-joke so easily.. Ockham Rzr applies :) | |
| Jan 25 at 9:40 | comment | added | komodosp | I understand why it's an insult, and also that even a futuristic toaster is still a toaster, but I don't but I don't recall seeing a character eating toast (at least I didn't prior to A.bakker's answer). While to us, the notion of having a single appliance for grilling bread seems obvious, we are talking about a civilisation from a completely different planet. e.g. I recently heard that many Americans don't have electric kettles (as inconceivable as that seems) so a Sci-Fi with Americans calling robots 'kettles' would be inappropriate. Is 'toaster' just for the audience's benefit? | |
| Jan 25 at 3:28 | comment | added | Therac | Yes, but this is the future. What if the entire galaxy's supply of bread had already been toasted by that time? | |
| Jan 24 at 22:22 | comment | added | Flater | @AndresF.: "Toaster" is a very common insult hurled at machines in real life and other fictional worlds; this is not unique to BSG by any stretch. Example 1 Example 2 I do agree that they likely picked a toaster in BSG (shown in the other answer) that resembled a Cylon. Whether that's an in-joke or a serious justification for the origins of the insult is arguable. | |
| Jan 24 at 18:17 | comment | added | Andres F. | Yesss, but... it's also quite clear the insult "toaster" also refers to the appearance of the chromed Cylons as compared to the look of a classical/retro toaster (you can still get them chromed, too). It's not ANY expensive single-purpose device, it's specifically a device that looks like a chrome toaster. The heated coils themselves don't matter, but the specific look does. | |
| Jan 24 at 0:04 | history | edited | Flater | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 191 characters in body
|
| Jan 23 at 23:56 | history | answered | Flater | CC BY-SA 4.0 |