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Hi Def Fever? Or, When Digitall get so crazy?

   Everybody knows someone who has the ridiculously expensive “Entertainment System”. I’m not talking about the average ES, I’m talking “Sunfire”, or “Levinson”, expensive. Gadgets that start at 3-4 digits and go to 4-5-6 digits. Car stereos that cost more than the average car, so loud they can “stress small buildings with a single note”. You know the ones I’m talking about, 1000 yards away and “your” ears hurt, the ones that make you purchase stock in the hearing aid companies to insure your retirement down the road.

   Somehow loud and concussive became synonymous with good and clean, musical compositions became synonymous with loud craprap.

   The 102" Hi-Def surround sound ES is still just a TV after all, and will never be Real Life, no matter how many “Reality Shows” they broadcast. With Hi-Def you can see the actors sweat under the lights, and the blemishes right through the pancake makeup. I personally believe TV should remain “chewing gum for the mind”, and leave the reality to real life, outside the house, in the real world experience.

   Even here you are constantly assaulted with the digital world, (like it or not), DVD players in cars, mp3 players plugged into you ears, phones stuck to the side of your head, satellite radio, digital LED billboard signs, digital billboards on the sides of trucks, constant reminders of our never ending attempt to escape the hum drum reality of our existence in the modern world.

   In the long run it would probably be cheaper to fix the real world than to hide in the digital one, but that would put Madison Ave, and a lot of gadget manufacturers out of business, and you wouldn’t have that new toy to show off. (Hey guys, check out my new phone/tv/mp3/computer/vibrator/bidet/thingy). Reality sucks, because we no longer try to fix the problems of society, we prefer to chase after more expensive chewing gum so we won’t have to notice how bad it sucks.

   Crime is up, (even with the constant influx of new police officers), poverty is up, (even with the increase in new jobs), depression is on the rise, ADHD is increasing, autism is on the rise, (even with the new wonder drugs), illiteracy is high, (even with our “modern educational system”), overweight undernourished people abound, (even with the current health craze).
                                                                                 

   Everything seems to be deteriorating on a logarithmic scale as we keep increasing our population and expanding our reach further and further across the planet and eventually into space. As long as we have our toys we pretend not to notice, and as long as somebody’s making lots of money, we’ll continue to have “new and improved toys” to occupy our minds.

   The digital age is here to stay, with all its new toys that we really don’t need, but must have, to be at least marginally cool. The digital age is here to stay; (The reigning technology, until the next “alien space crash” brings us into “The Efitall Age”). There are some who actually believe digital technology came from reverse engineering a crashed alien space craft. (Roswell)

   The only problem with digital is the ease by which it can be manipulated, any ten year old with a computer can manipulate digital imagery. Information can be modified to fit whatever facts or non-facts someone wants it to fit, news is usually slanted to fit the opinions of the particular news bringer, digital broadcasting will make this much easier, and all the accompanying imagery can be modified to support the opinions they purvey.

   The right to privacy will slowly vanish as more and more digital gadgetry falls into the hands of the consumer. The use of digital wireless communication invites eavesdropping, as any broadcast signal can be intercepted by anyone with the means and desire, and warrants are not really a requirement since the signals are floating around in the ether-world for anyone to grab. As technology advances, so also does the world shrink, and the individual’s privacy shrinks proportionately.

 (Getting Bored? Well maybe one more.)