What are you curious about?
So “Threads” didn’t pop. No surprise if we’re looking at the current state of online connecting and distribution. “Why’s that, Jim? Billionaires, entrepreneurs and online pundits want to know!” In my view it’s simple: it’s an over saturated industry that has peaked. As such it’s ran its course.
This is nothing new. It’s happened time and time again since man started writing things down and figuring out better ways to share the messages. It was a matter of technology evolving more so than just new and shiny spokes for the wheel. The papyrus scrolls were a magical advancement from the stone and chisel as was the printing press after the aforementioned papyrus pieces. And with each one came a bunch of equally relieved and terrified members of their respective industries. The stone cutters and carriers were much happier with the lighter load of the paper but the quarry owners were surely pondering; “Now what am I gonna do with all these slabs of rock?!? They took our jobs!!!” Thats not to mention all the blinded monks questioning what that loud noise was in the background that was periodically pounding down on a sheet of paper behind them. If you don’t get that reference, we can chat about that later.
In the end, the latest “greatest thing since sliced bread” has always come and gone so many times since those loaves were even split up and dished out. We of the 20th century saw tons of this. From vinyl to tape to cd’s and then MP3’s. And that’s just portable audio evolution through technology. The same timeline flows for video as well. Film to tape to DVD (all the other type discs offer little more than more storage capacity, so apologies to BluRay and 4KUltraHD snobs. They ain’t that special).
Now thinking about the forms of distribution (newspaper to radio to television to smartphones ) all of those instruments replaced the others taking along with them the best of their predecessors and making them more practical and accessible. With the final stop being the smartphone we find that social media platforms appear to be the final stop on this piece of techs journey. So what’s next?
In pondering this curiosity, the best I’ve got is going to be the device that allows for total immersion via control by thought both in and out. We’re practically there with the exception of the delivery device. I really creeped myself out a bit in thinking about this when I realized that the smartphones coupled with cellular wave riding, has actually made that very possible. Hear me out…
With social media and all that goes into its workings and machinations of collecting, tracking and processing what we all do in our usage of these platforms, the computers that process and store all of this data have indeed nearly perfect clones of our thoughts, actions, desires and intentions. Not that they can read our minds but instead have nearly all the variables to make a damn good guess at what we’re going to do or even think next. The scary part is that with that much information it is absolutely possible to manipulate and influence choices and opinions with ease. I won’t go any further down that rabbit hole but to say that the future is now and the brain wave pounding and sucking device that Edward Nigma created in the movie “Batman Forever” way back in 1995, could be the device… if only people actually sat in front of the television. Perhaps the Riddler could attempt it to an app.
That’s my curiosity for the day. What day you? What comes next in the world of mass information and entertainment distribution and communication?
Now, Go Play!
Jim 08/05/2023
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