What I Miss About TV

What I miss about TV is the random access. TV(with cable) was a great technology for quickly finding engaging content without a particular plan in mind. With the web and podcasts and such you have to go through a process of selection that involves mental effort. I guess what I'm saying is websurfing is a more deliberate pasttime than channel surfing, and the ability to mindlessly explore a limited set of TV channels fills a niche in the modern homo sapien's life that the internet can't quite replace. TV's a little bit like iPod Shuffle, in a way. You turn it on, it delivers content, and you respond with a simple binary decision about whether you're entertained. Even when the eventual conclusion is "Nothing's on," there's a certain satisfaction in having looked, and having exhausted the possibilities. The sense of ennui when it seems that there's "Nothing on" on the internet is, by contrast, infinitely deep. It can go on for hours if you persist in looking, because you know the thing you're looking for is out there somewhere(it always is) but you can't seem to find it, or even quantify it with a Google search.

I suppose Youtube is the obvious counter to this, but somehow I don't spend a lot of time there, even though I do like it. Probably I just need more bandwidth. Which is a funny word, sounds like a word a baby would make up. Bandwidth. Huh.

In the Future, Everyone Will Be "The Man" For Fifteen Seconds

One of the odd things about the internet is meeting famous, or semi-famous people and interacting with them in a kind of community, and having to reconcile this experience with the experience of being a fan.

This is most pronounced, for me, on forums. More than once I have discovered that a person I like very much as a writer is not a person I can get along with on a message board. Of course, there's no reason to expect otherwise. You have to remind yourself that the writer of your favorite novel is not your friend, no matter how much time you feel you've spent with him, or how close you may feel to his characters.

And the strangeness of this dichotomy reaches its peak when the object of fandom has moderator power over the board. I have a small problem with authority - not in a spiteful troublemaker kind of way, more in a naive anarchist kind of way - so it's particularly uncomfortable when someone I admire becomes The Man. I have to resist an urge to take the side of a banned poster, even if they deserved it, and I have to temper my knee-jerk emotional response, which is resentment and paranoia.

I can see in myself the same emotional reaction that causes netizens worldwide to cry "The mods are nazis!" Such reactions are (mostly) unwarranted, but the net is so much like an anarchist utopia that the occasional imposition of authority stands out like black on white. It's impossible not to feel threatened. On occasion I have felt deeply disturbed by events like this, but I get over it within a couple days. I guess the lesson is "sleep on it."

The Internet is Star Trek Technology

In the future of Star Trek, Earth is a utopia where technology satisfies everyone's needs and desires. There is no money because nothing is scarce. There is no business because nothing is exploitable. In short, Star Trek technology makes people happier while also making capitalism obsolete. On the TV show, they rarely went into much depth about this, so there are some logical holes. How does their government work? Would we ever really run out of things to buy and sell? Does Captain Sisko's father run a restaurant simply because he wants to? How do the Ferengi continue to be unapologetically capitalist when they have all the same technology? These issues aside, the premise is a sound one - technology removes limitations from our lives, and businesses which exist to exploit those limitations inevitably die off.

The internet is the Enterprise's copy machine. It makes copies of anything, for anyone, in any quantity. A lot of money was made in the 20th century by selling copies, but in the 21st, copying information is a basic fact of life. Trying to corner the market on digital copies now is like trying to corner the market on oxygen. I'm not sure what replaces the old business model, but ignoring change is not an option.

The two things to note here are A: Star Trek technology improves life for humanity in general, and B: Star Trek technology makes business models obsolete. Maybe I watched too much Star Trek, but I think it's only a matter of time before A makes us forget that we had any concerns over B.

Ps. Another good sci-fi allegory for the internet age is The Stars My Destination.