Another crazy technology attack comes from Xbox, set to release Project Natal gaming in 2010, where you play and interact with games device-free, (kinda like a Wii without the remote):
Despite the somewhat cheesy promotional video where moppety haircuts on boys and forced diversity family fun manage to make xbox's impressive technological feat seem kind of lame, it's pretty crazy that Ray Bradbury's short stories are actually becoming reality. As in - science fiction come to life. Which brings me to my questions, since said sci-fi stories always turned out to contain a twisted moral message about technological advancement exploding/eating/turning people into heartless computers like themselves.
Despite the somewhat cheesy promotional video where moppety haircuts on boys and forced diversity family fun manage to make xbox's impressive technological feat seem kind of lame, it's pretty crazy that Ray Bradbury's short stories are actually becoming reality. As in - science fiction come to life. Which brings me to my questions, since said sci-fi stories always turned out to contain a twisted moral message about technological advancement exploding/eating/turning people into heartless computers like themselves.
The there's also the inevitable spectre of the company that will first succeed in smushing together of all current electronic devices we use to form one super electronic device - think an iphone/kindle/computer/dailyplanner/body temperature sensor/ipod/personal attendant sort of thing. Yeah, I know, smartphones ALREADY KIND OF DO THIS, but I think it's coming: a computer bodysuit that will probably be able to pre-diagnose illnesses, provide you with witty quotes or a tip-of-the-tongue fact recall in social situations, analyze your poop to give you diet tips, etc, etc.
While I don't necessarily consider this technology porn threatening, I question whether we really need this stuff. It's weird watching that floppy-haired boy in the xbox video scan his real skateboard, so that he can use one like it for his avatar on screen. I mean, you can see the sun shining through the living room window as he plays his new motion sensor game in his living room, and it crossed my mind that while he was generally looking kind of like an idiot thrusting around on the carpet, he could actually be out skating in his neighborhood...you know, like, totally having experiences or something - instead of hanging out for perpetuity with his lame smiley xbox commercial family playing buzzer games.
Compact Discs are - as KM keeps sadly whispering while caressing the plastic cases of her extensive CD collection- a "dead medium," and they aren't coming back. Now all of us who particpated in a decade-long version of the Columbia Music Club - a.k.a. compact disc owners - have to figure out how to load all of the music we purchased for 24.99/disc in the nineties into digital storage without crashing our computers. And even then, you have to back it up with an external hard drive lest your overloaded computer crash some day. And when that happens, back up the music again lest your external hard drive accidentally get dropped in the toilet, or more realistically -- stop working. And so on. It sounds like a never-ending digital download of your - well your STUFF. And frankly, maybe I'd just rather have the individual CDs - to accidentally ruin one-by-one rather than all at once.
Not that I don't support moving forward, I just don't know if it makes sense. Lest I sound like a "back in my age, we bathed in earthenware jugs and heated water with our breath" kind of luddite grandpa, let me explain:
Compact Discs are - as KM keeps sadly whispering while caressing the plastic cases of her extensive CD collection- a "dead medium," and they aren't coming back. Now all of us who particpated in a decade-long version of the Columbia Music Club - a.k.a. compact disc owners - have to figure out how to load all of the music we purchased for 24.99/disc in the nineties into digital storage without crashing our computers. And even then, you have to back it up with an external hard drive lest your overloaded computer crash some day. And when that happens, back up the music again lest your external hard drive accidentally get dropped in the toilet, or more realistically -- stop working. And so on. It sounds like a never-ending digital download of your - well your STUFF. And frankly, maybe I'd just rather have the individual CDs - to accidentally ruin one-by-one rather than all at once.
Music, files, photos, writings - it's all seemingly on its way to becoming digitized, and yellowed corners of photographs, handwritten notes stuffed into a box, and mix tapes lovingly decorated with inked playlists seem like they may be in danger of becoming obsolete.
Or are they? I kind of feel like people have an innate desire for handheld objects that don't require a charger and that the thrill of collecting objects is hard to transfer to the thrill of ...um, creating a folder on your desktop. The point is, I'm kind of pulling for these super experiments to simply become a niche brand of technology - not THE only technology the way ipods and smartphones have (and have started to) dominate the market. I like cool technology as much as the next geek, but I still want to be able to have real-life interactions outside my computer suit, teenagers are still gonna want to get into trouble in real parks rather than fake ones that exist on a game their parents play, and I still want handmade things that don't require a keyboard - or a touch sensor - to create. So I guess I'll just wait and see how these things play out to test my theories. In the meantime, I'll be crafting a luddite grandpa bath action figure out of clay.
