Old sci-fi also has computers with relais, like the computer clicking in Aliens when it’s thinking. People giving each other their iPad in Star Trek is still pretty amusing to me. Some books still describe punch cards and tapes in space ships. Hell, in Rebel Moon they were shoveling coal to power their space ship.
My suspension of disbelief says the PADDs are because of information security. They can afford for everyone to have 20 PADDs so they’re all coded to only have one document until wiped by the central computer or engineering
Old sci-fi also has computers with relais, like the computer clicking in Aliens when it’s thinking. People giving each other their iPad in Star Trek is still pretty amusing to me. Some books still describe punch cards and tapes in space ships. Hell, in Rebel Moon they were shoveling coal to power their space ship.
My suspension of disbelief says the PADDs are because of information security. They can afford for everyone to have 20 PADDs so they’re all coded to only have one document until wiped by the central computer or engineering