Symbolism

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It’s only universally recognized because of precedent. The true challenge is to create something that can be understood by someone that has no background with computers (or whatever)

Like the radiation ️ thing, danger ️ , are supposed to be examples of this. Radiation more so because it’s not supposed to rely on language even

Now excuse me while I press the call button on my phone which is shaped like a landline handset from 30 years ago

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For sure, but it doesn't actually matter whether it's abstract from the outset or has become abstract through technological advance so long as it's unique and understood. Someone who's never seen a floppy disk will still learn it quickly, because it's distinctive.

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Looks like a Switch cartridge as well, so no, that’s gonna be lost soon.

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My wife coaches high school field hockey. She told me how one day she overheard them talking about how one of them lost their work on a homework document and had to start over.

One of the girls said "you just gotta get in the habit of clicking the blue square", which the others were confirming is the thing to do. So then my wife asks "blue square, what do you mean" and another clarified "the save button".

They had no idea what a floppy disc was

lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)

I hate hand writing and drawing.
My drafts are computer aided.

But in case of emergency, I have muscle memory.

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Nero - burning ROM

‍️

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But what if we go extinct and computers remain functional? will aliens that discover our planet be able to save their documents? Did you think about that??

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You can make calls on your phone. I gotta text my friends this

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I've said it ~~once~~ zero times and I'll say it again. Far-future hypothetical space aliens should RTFM.

Deconceptualist

Also the phone app icon still resembles one of those old banana units, even though phones haven't looked that way in 25+ years.

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Do you imagine how wonderful Lemme could be if everyone drafted theirs posts on paper, prior to clicking "Send"?

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How is the nuclear sign in any way universally understandable? It is properly by learning it's meaning.

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I've seen a growing number of programs that use an arrow pointing towards a picture of a computer or hard drive for "save* and an arrow pointing away from it for "load" and I feel like that's very graceful skeuomorph to shift to that might hold up for longer (although it breaks if it's talking about cloud save, but replace the picture of a computer with picture of a cloud and you're back in business I suppose)

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I had to explain the save button to my 9 year old about a week ago. And then I found myself explaining what a floppy disk was. Tonight I'll ask him if he knows what that is a picture of. I'll be impressed if he remembers. If he fails the check, imma gonna launch into a lecture on boot disks, games, and batch files. Wish me luck!

TeNppa

I've seen those being used as download and upload but not for saving.

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The design process is actually very interesting to read about and the intentionality (whether you think it’s effective or not) is essentially the scenario that if someone were to stumble across it in 10,000 years they would recognize it is dangerous and leave it alone

That said you are probably right given there already have been a few notable incidents where people have broken into discarded medical equipment and stolen radioactive sources, poisoning dozens of people in the process

Chainweasel

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The idea that human society will make it to 4269 as well as the old Twitter logo at the bottom really date this one.

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It's intended to visually represent an atom with radiation emitting away from it.

So it's not univeral in the sense that anyone could recognise it, but in the sense that anyone who knows about what radiation is might have a clue - be them people now, or some future civilisation, or aliens. It's a depiction of what is going on.

The symbol also uses elements of graphic design that make it feel unwelcoming and hostile even if you have no understanding at all. It's a design that clearly telegraphs "this is not a good thing"

Similar for the biohazard sign, which in its strange curves and spines looks almost "mutated"