Today I was listening to ELO's Time album. Being a concept album, all of the songs on this album have a sci-fi feel to them. Having been written and recorded in the early eighties, it's kind of surprising how some of the concepts and ideas on this album have, in some way shape or form come to fruition.
Yours Truly, 2095 is about a man who falls in love with a robot. I'm not saying there are people falling in love with robots, but are we really that far off? We have robo-pups, a few years ago we had the furbies (they're still out there, I believe, although not as popular as they once were) which were essentially A.I. pets. With A.I. pets are A.I. "companions" that far off?
Or a looser interpretation-- we use cell phones, laptops, mp3 players-- all of which both bring us closer together and tear us further apart. We're essentially wed to technology, on one hand it allows us to communicate with people hundreds and thousands of miles away-- making the world a much smaller place, but on the other hand these technologies encourage self-absorption and solitude. We have better "connections" but it allows us to shut out those with whom we share our lives-- those in the here and now.
The song at one point even touches upon jealousies, a robot being jealous of an IBM for example-- sometimes our friends and family, those who are "there" who are the tangible, not the cyber, end up feeling left out when those of us who enter this digital space, this blogosphere, an exit on the Information Superhighway forsake our tangible connections for those which are a bit less corporeal.
Maybe I'm overthinking this, maybe technology is just moving faster than we can keep up with it... This new access to information, to new people is happening so fast we just haven't had a chance to process is properly or correctly and thus maybe society, as a whole, is getting so caught up in the advance of technology that we're just getting "lost" along the way.
Monday, November 13, 2006
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4 comments:
Technology has greatly impacted how we communicate with each other, that's for sure. Now we can keep in touch with loved ones more easily. We can exchange pictures and songs and share things, just with a push of a button.
People are building actual relationships via technology, without even meeting.
The only problem is, using technology as a sole means to communicate leads to a real lack of personal intimacy. And true connection.
Also, technology has created a new breed of predators: child molesters stalking prey on the internet.
Like any new technology one has to take the bad with the good and hope that mankind will be smart enough to sort it out eventually.
Darrin, I DEPEND on you to over-think these things and then post about them.
ELO was one of the first concerts I saw back in the dark ages.
The world, or worlds, of Star Trek may not be so far-fetched, afterall.
I also saw ELO back in the "horse and buggy days", as Layla so eloquently put it...
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