As if they were just waiting to hit that button, publishers across the internet ushered in 2015 with articles about Back To the Future II. And that’s because in the sequel to the sci-fi hit movie of the 80s Marty McFly and “Doc” Brown travel to the future; the future is now: 2015.
A majority of the publications seemed to focus on what the movie got wrong: we don’t have flying cars or hoverboards and our clothes don’t automatically dry themselves. However, one key scene that the movie totally nails, and got completely overlooked, was the scene in which Marty is fired by his Japanese boss, Fujitsu-san. As the writer James Hadfield pointed out, it was nothing short of clairvoyant foresight that, in 2015, the Japanese would still be using fax machines. “Read my fax,” yells Fujitsu-san. “You’re fired!”
January 10, 2015 at 3:40 pm
People rag on Japan’s reliance on fax technology, but I don’t get it. It is a tried and true technology that has worked well for decades, so why change it?
I actually relish the opportunity to fax documents. It’s a reliable way to get a confirmation page that shows I damn well attempted to send *something* when I said I did. It covers my ass in a lot of legal matters, especially when it comes to putting vendors on notice.
You don’t get such a paper trail from email unless both parties have Microsoft Exchange as part of their infrastructure, and I doubt Exchange read receipts count for much in court. Its also a very expensive and complicated solution to a problem that was already resolved 50 years ago…
My only complaint is the fact that it requires a phone line but there are plenty of online services to accommodate that.