All those blinking lights...

LOL, it's kinda like those movies from the 70's, in which the story takes place in the future (like Logan's Run...Rollerball, etc...). Rollerball is a great example. In the mid-70's, the filmmakers must have thought the future would have cool doors that open in a vortex style....or with the top and bottom coming together like a mouth closing, ha ha.

It cracks me up...because, in the case of Rollerball, at least they got the big screen TV right. But James Caan's apartment still had SHAG CARPET! Haaa!

Actually, the Nostromo is not meant to be "high tech". It is an old ship class, very analog.
It does not represent the "peak technology" of the time.

It's just an interesting (and sometimes amusing) dichotomy. Star Wars is full of them. There's enough technology in that universe for space ships, hyper-drive, lasers, cybornetics, etc....yet virtually no one has a means of communicating with each other (i.e. cell phones) except for an occasional walkie-talkie-esque device. Enough technology for robots with AI and personalities...yet R2-D2 can't vocalize in English and communicates with beepity-beeps.

Shatner even poked fun of all the silly rows of lights on the Enterprise in his cameo in Airplane II. It's just funny....because filmmakers at the time the movie is made....have to guess at what technology will look like way in the future. Heck, it changes so quickly these days...technology can look obsolete in a just a few years.

Blade Runner is another one. Enough technology for flying cars....but yet there are still pay phones.

In a movie like Alien....I'd expect even the most BASIC of mining rigs to have modern (at least modern by 2122 standards....or even 2020 standards, ha ha) technology. They're still flying in space and that requires quite a bit of technology, whether it be a mining rig or a super-galactic space cruiser.

The point is, the filmmakers did the best they could with forecasting...not knowing how omnipresent computers and computer screens would become. Typically, to fill in the gaps (when it comes to cool-looking visual technology)....the filmmakers of those times defaulted to.....rows and rows of blinkity lights and switches, ha ha.

They don't need to look like they do in Star Trek, but it's absurd to think that even an industrial, no frills ship in 2100 would be using IT that looks like it came from the year 1989. All the ships computers using a text based UI running on a monochrome CRT would just not happen.

Monochrome CRTs are totally obsolete now in 2020. I don't think they even make them anymore other than maybe in limited numbers for replacement parts. LCDs not only look better but are better in every way that I can think of, and they can be cheap, even here in 2020. Even if you don't need color or a high resolution or any of that for what you're doing, you aren't going to go back to old, obsolete technology like a monochrome CRT with disadvantages like being bulkier. You'd just go with a cheap version of the current technology.

Also, in Alien they used those old fashioned monochrome CRTs for everything. Even their navigation programs. Why would they use a monitor that can't do more than crude line drawings when more advanced monitors can do so much more. Show more detailed, much higher res images, color, animations and more information, all at the same time. That'd be useful. Even on a no frills industrial ship you'd want that. And it makes no sense that Mother, the computer that runs the spaceship would use some ancient style of monitor either, using a totally text based UI. It's just absurd, really.

>> Why exactly would a floating mining rig need virtual reality or holograms?

It's not about needing it, it's about the cheapest technology and what is around. Notice how flat, touch screens are all over the place now. You don't see any CRTs anymore. Also ... keyboards are going away, except for touchpads, and even they are becoming 2-D cheap bubble buttons. For weight and cost it is easier to virtualize all controls to a computer API and have it as an app that comes up on a touch screen. The cheap stuff crowds out the old stuff.

You have to admit it was funny when they supervisor or captain would go into the "Mother" room with all the blinking lights and be typing on a keyboard.

And what was with all the steam in the belowdeck area where Brett and Parker would hang?

Also funny was the plumes of fog that would emit from the tops of their helmets as they hiked to the alien ship. That could be realistic if it was like oxygen re-breathers or something.

I think it would look AT LEAST as technologically advanced as any ship in 2021. That’s kinda the point: It’s always interesting to see how filmmakers back in the 70’s forecasted how technology would look and function in the future—when creating a film that takes place in the future. It’s not a criticism (relax). It’s more an observation.

Sometimes they get some things pretty close (Star Trek was right about flip phones, mobile computers, big screen TV’s, even face time. Heck, the teleportation concept is something we haven’t even caught up to yet).

And other things they forecasted about how the future will look and function look rather silly now...like how Rollerball envisioned shag carpeting, Lego-looking choppers, and doors that slide open top-meeting-bottom rather than left to right.

I think in general, they always defaulted to using rows and rows of colorful lights and switches (if you look closely, none of them are even labeled) to fill space and depict technology inside a spaceship.

Looks cool to a kid who is watching....but for adults, can look kinda silly.

Plus analogue tech is more reliable. On the space station now they would have shit that looks outdated on land. Analogue is easier to fix on the fly, more utilitarian.

The quoted description in your first paragraph reminded me of a spacecraft in an episode of the sci-fi t.v. show Space 1999. The episode was “Mission of the Darians” from 1975 and the spacecraft was the size of a city but resembles the Nostromo. You can find pics online.

LOL, so true.

Especially the female nonchalant voice counting down. And yes, the unnecessary steam!