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It Gets Deep: The Low, The Tykes, The Links, The Bleeps · by R.H.S.
Man this cheap champagne is delicious.
Though Pax Americana hasn’t been plunged into an untimely nuclear winter by self-aware robots with gatz, YET, you can bet your bottom microchip barcode that the pesky varmints are creepin’ on a come up. Robotic-Americans have crashed the gates and are rapidly pouring into the 21st century’s most contested space: the diminishing attention span of Generation Z. In a controlled study, scientists “introduced a toddler-size humanoid robot into a classroom at a UCSD childhood education center” and videotaped interactions between the Sony-made ‘bot and a group of unsuspecting three year-olds. The youngsters gradually began to demonstrate genuine affection towards their cold steel babysitters causing one syntactically different scientist to poignantly remark that “Humans have a tremendous propensity to bond with artifacts with any or all sort, whether it be a car, a doll, or a robot.” True dat – whether it’s that ol’ next shit “Wrong Side of the Tracks“ vinyl single (or more likely, the mp3 conveniently loaded into a Nano jam-packed with similar goodies), a tricked-out Smart car , a talking Ghostface doll or a remote-controlled storyteller/disciplinarian, people have grown rather fond of their bleeping, pulsing, glowing gadgets. I know superwomen coast-to-coast who can’t function without their SideKick LX fully charged. Given these stark millenial realities, I am utterly perplexed by the criticism leveled at NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to give free cell phones to students from low income schools who receive good grades. Kill that noise, Luddite naysayers, the future is now and once these municipally subsidized cell phones are powered by nanotubes “10,000 times smaller than a human hair” and stocked full of miraculous Google Android widgets , poor urban ‘tweens and adolescents won’t be left behind in the information economy. At worst they’ll turn into future-shocked spaced-out grandiloquent thugs or, perish the thought, trend-savvy skateboarders reveling in the reign of the tech. Either way, they’ll be better prepared to navigate and negotiate public spaces, both manmade and natural, that increasingly resemble the cratered battlezones where irreconcilable forces like magma and human habitation (or high-risk mortgages and sustainable human habitation) remain locked in combat. For the young of America’s post-deindustrialized urbana, temptations and pitfalls abound: everywhere you look you’ll find some nefarious future-minded scheme designed to either push the poor out of the central city or squander enormous amounts of resources and revenue on endeavors that are directly injurious to this population or just fail miserably altogether. It is imperative then that educators and their robotic teaching assistants, direct the youth to utilize existing gizmos for social betterment so as to dissuade them incorporating emerging innovations into horrific acts of violence and wanton destruction. Palm-sized mixers over Glocks any day; killer viruses, toxic toys, virulent black market economies, and propensities towards obesity and sci-fi addiction notwithstanding, immersion in today’s digital universe can and should be a wholesome experience where creativity is nurtured and multimedia projects remain rooted in their centuries-old tradition of enlightened experimentation. And that’s one to grow on!
Comments for "It Gets Deep: The Low, The Tykes, The Links, The Bleeps"
They’re gonna build a stepfather factory.
— SmoothJimmyApollo Nov 14, 06:00 AM
Skypager
— David Nov 14, 12:37 PM
Huh? What?
Goes back to building own tesla coil and developing a real life functioning flux capacitor
One.
— Dart Adams Nov 14, 01:01 PM
Somehow Roger managed to make a dystopian future appear more raw than Orwell and P.K. Dick combined. Nice work. It got me a little shook to see the bit about Gen-Z since my firstborn watches Yo! Gabba Gabba almost daily. Peace.
— Jay B Nov 15, 12:41 AM