What is it with the future and octagonal sheets?

It is a stylistic device in Battlestar Galactica …

And now it re-appears in Wired’s Artifacts from the Future:

I’m all for style, but this just seems not thought through. Octagonal sheets will take at least twice as much time to be cut, and will produce quite unnecessary waste – why would they use that on a spaceship with already limited ressources?¹ Let alone on a planet nearly drained of all its natural ressources by its inhabitants …

Nitpicking? Maybe – but then again, I want my science fiction be thought through, at least a little bit.

Oh, and I would now really enjoy to watch Battlestar Galactica, but neither do I have the DVDs, nor do I have the time to do so. Work awaits, lots of stupid, mindless things. Bleeeh.