Today, I have a chance to reflect over a nice cuppa joe, and tap away on the laptop on my deck in the lovely Skalifornia sun. That is luxury, sirs and ladies, and a profoundly modern experience - to toss some ideas up online from a lawn chair, as text, audio, images or video, available instantly to the world, from a wireless network on a DSL at the end of a copper phone line, sharing random thoughts with friends and complete strangers from here to Timbuktu. What does that mean? What do I have to say? The number of things I think about sharing far exceeds the things I say here. It’s odd. Why have a blog? I enjoy it, that’s a good reason. But what is it for? Remains to be seen. Today I write free form.
Yesterday, I went for a walk through Berkeley without my cell phone. Not by choice - I left it somewhere after the gig on Friday night. As I meandered through the north side streets, I would occasionally reach into my pocket out of habit to grab my cell - see if there’s a text message, or maybe call a friend. And I realized that not having the phone with me, not having those options, actually provided me with a freedom that I had not noticed was missing. It was recognizable - it was the same as walking alone on a late spring evening in the days before cell phones. Back when the phone was something you had at home, and if you weren’t there, you simply missed calls. At least until answering machines came along, and then anyone could leave you a message, 24/7. Now, kids are growing up with phones they carry with them from a very early age, and they don’t know this sensation that I felt yesterday. It is hard to describe but all you have to do to see what I mean is go for a walk without your cell phone. Turning it off doesn’t count. Now I’m not a Luddite, and I do not vilify technology or its place in society, but I do know that the rate of change has increased steadily in the course of our lives, and it shows no sign of slowing soon. So we adjust as we can, excited by the new possibilities, but are we aware of what we may be losing in trade for these new avenues of expression and communication? I can’t imagine a day without Internet now. I mean, I don’t think I’ve had one, since.. 2002 maybe? That’s quite a run!
I foresee a backpacking trip, at least a week away from civilization, somewhere in the Sierras or on the north coast. On this trip I will swim in fresh water - as opposed to a chlorinated pool - and I will experience both bliss and laptop withdrawal, I’m sure of it. I look forward to it. What I do on this thing? Produce music, contribute to websites, write songs, blog, email, chat and skype and read and google things on tangents and research and write and learn and talk and talk and talk. It is my portal to the world. It is my jack into cyberspace, as William Gibson’s classic The Neuromancer predicted. But I don’t have to wait for the interface directly with my brain, that’s immaterial, it’s already a virtual world, I finally understand that. We are not in the room. The room is in us.
So, when it was just me, and no connection to any electronic network, walking alone, I felt like a kid. I was me, at 12 years old, on a weekend afternoon, strolling as my feet steered me, completely free. It was a different freedom from this digital one.
I do love the Internet. If it didn’t exist, and corporate media was the only mass communication available, then the Internet would have to be invented. So it was. So it is. And it is reinvented every day. I haven’t had a television in years. It is an obsolete and shrieking medium of unfettered stupidity. What does the world want? The Idiocracy is upon us, and beside it, a renaissance.
I hear there are more and more reality shows now. I believe Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
