Friday, July 03, 2020

The Future Ain't What it Used To Be


Ray Bradbury had a story of people riding the bus (who does that in the 'future'?) with basically Dick Tracy wrist-radios (look it up, ya punks!), describing every stop of the trip ("We're now at 7th, I should be home in 5 minutes").

I think about that story a lot, especially when my mail carrier is wandering the neighborhood talking loudly to herself, when in fact she's got an earpiece in and is on her phone.  Have you ever noticed how many people talking on their phones in public are having utter banal conversations?

And just today I saw an ad for a game you can download:  it showed happy consumers sitting in chairs waiting for their turn at the window of some agency, happily nodding like idiots as they bent over their palms, the screens alight with moving figures.  Yeah, I'd say this short film was extraordinarily accurate.   Especially since there are no flying cars.

I should research which came first; that story or this short film.

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