Miracle Medium Supplies Telepathy and Time-Travel
One of the most famous, prolific and influential science fiction writers (I believe it was Isaac Asimov?) once wrote in a magazine (TV Guide?) that there was a revolutionary form of infotainment better than the VHS tape (still new, then), movies, TV, radio, etc. It was portable, affordable, contained its own power supply, and it presented information and entertainment in full color, three dimensions, surround sound. It also supplied smells, textures and emotion. It was telepathic, in that it allowed the user to read the minds of others. He called it a "book."
Lately I have realized that this miraculous device also has a time-shifting element, allowing people from the past to communicate all of the vivid details mentioned above to people removed by centuries. People can also use it to transport themselves — in physical safety, even if at some peril to convictions and complacency — to other times, places and cultures. It is a low-cost equivalent to the Roddentopian "transporter" of "Star Trek."
Literacy (not just the capacity to read simple written information, but also to actually fathom and produce nuanced written material with depths of meaning and capacity for evoking emotional response) is measurably declining. Technology is amping up the ability for almost anyone to "say" almost anything, and in record time. A pre-teen with an iMac and iMovie and a DV camcorder can produce "content" in hours and distribute it around the world. This does not mean that the same young person has anything to say (and very many do), or that they will manage to get their meaning across in a way that it is actually understood. It also does not mean that their work cannot be stolen, adapted, and used for cross purposes to their original intentions.
"Readers are leaders" is a profound proverb. Bill Gates, President Bush, Donald Trump , Tom Hanks, Stephen Hawking . . . these people know how to read. They also have the writing skills necessary to detect subtle shadings of intention in what they read. When the proles devolve to a point where they only grasp words provided to clarify icons on signs — technology doing the reading and typing, the spelling and formatting for them — only the readers will be capable of informed opinion and decision-making, and they will rule the majority without the masses grasping how they are shackled.
Orwell would shudder at the direction people are allowing technology to seduce them. Technology is a boon for educated and thinking people, and a noose around the throats of the ignorant. As informed and intelligent people allow machines to do their communication chores for them, and demand less and less tangible, at-length communication from others, they invest in the destruction of genuine liberty, propping up a trend to enslave the masses (including themnselves) with fun, colorful, animated chains full of popping sounds, music, and dubious origins, enigmatic goals.
Lately I have realized that this miraculous device also has a time-shifting element, allowing people from the past to communicate all of the vivid details mentioned above to people removed by centuries. People can also use it to transport themselves — in physical safety, even if at some peril to convictions and complacency — to other times, places and cultures. It is a low-cost equivalent to the Roddentopian "transporter" of "Star Trek."
Literacy (not just the capacity to read simple written information, but also to actually fathom and produce nuanced written material with depths of meaning and capacity for evoking emotional response) is measurably declining. Technology is amping up the ability for almost anyone to "say" almost anything, and in record time. A pre-teen with an iMac and iMovie and a DV camcorder can produce "content" in hours and distribute it around the world. This does not mean that the same young person has anything to say (and very many do), or that they will manage to get their meaning across in a way that it is actually understood. It also does not mean that their work cannot be stolen, adapted, and used for cross purposes to their original intentions.
"Readers are leaders" is a profound proverb. Bill Gates, President Bush, Donald Trump , Tom Hanks, Stephen Hawking . . . these people know how to read. They also have the writing skills necessary to detect subtle shadings of intention in what they read. When the proles devolve to a point where they only grasp words provided to clarify icons on signs — technology doing the reading and typing, the spelling and formatting for them — only the readers will be capable of informed opinion and decision-making, and they will rule the majority without the masses grasping how they are shackled.
Orwell would shudder at the direction people are allowing technology to seduce them. Technology is a boon for educated and thinking people, and a noose around the throats of the ignorant. As informed and intelligent people allow machines to do their communication chores for them, and demand less and less tangible, at-length communication from others, they invest in the destruction of genuine liberty, propping up a trend to enslave the masses (including themnselves) with fun, colorful, animated chains full of popping sounds, music, and dubious origins, enigmatic goals.
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