I remember when I could only use the computer through a DOS prompt. Good ol' C:\ prompt, and if i was feeling particularly frisky while searching for what I wanted, I'd use the command dir/w so I could read the display easier. I remember emailing Ann M. Martin through Prodigy to tell her how much I loved the BSC and that I was her biggest fan. I remember playing Roadrunner, Indiana Jones, and Wheel of Fortune games off of 5.25" floppy disks. I remember waiting til no one was on the phone, and connecting via modem - that awful sound meant I'd get to sign on to AIM and check my AOL email. I remember when using the computer meant sitting at a chunky desktop family computer, and you could get kicked off any second. As a musician, I remember using PowerTrax and Band In A Box to sequence MIDI songs for me to sing along to. I remember being amazed at my first SNES console - it looked so cool and bright and flashy! I remember when cell phones became a Thing, and when our family got our first "family emergency" cell phone in 1997 - a Motorola StarTac that seemed so tiny and it had a little pull out antenna and it was FLIPPY.
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| I was the coolest kid in school when I borrowed this. Seriously. |
Fast forward to college and I remember using Kazaa and Limewire to download songs - and 90% of the time it would be a rickroll or some other awful crap and it would be a total waste of an afternoon. I remember before smartphones were a Thing, when I never texted people because no one texted, everyone always called, and I remember forgetting where my cell phone was because it didn't matter. I remember having to use a MAP to figure out where I was because i didn't have GPS (those things were expensive!) and I certainly didn't have a phone with google maps. I remember printing directions off of mapquest.
What brought this whole nostalgia-fest on? Well, today I was able to get three whole seasons of a British tv show unavailable in the US in 10 minutes, downloaded at 5.5 MB/s straight to my laptop. I brought my laptop with me into the kitchen, to the dining table, and to the bathroom - no wires or plugs of any kind attached. (Don't go "EWWWW" and act like you've never brought your laptop, tablet, and/or phone into the bathroom with you. We don't judge here.) Then, when all 4.5 GB was finished, I transferred it to a flash drive and now I can plug it into my PS3 and watch it.
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES WHAT A FUCKING MIRACLE OF TECHNOLOGY THIS IS?! I got a TV show from another country that is unavailable in this country in a matter of mere minutes, from the AIR. What the hell is even happening?! Everything I thought was crazy when I was a kid (Video calls, talking to people on the other side of the world instantly, sending messages and objects instantly) is so commonplace, high schoolers roll their eyes when I get hit with reality and am amazed. What's next? Hoverboards? OH WAIT. We HAVE those. When I was growing up, if I wanted to talk to someone on the other side of the world, it took a stamp and three weeks. I had penpals that I literally wrote to with a
pen. I had a
stamp collection.
I am not nearly old enough to be writing a blog post on this topic. It feels very "Stupid kids, get off my lawn!" (While I'm on the subject of blogs, though...remember LiveJournal? *shudder*) But seriously, it's mind boggling to me the things that we can do thanks to modern technology now. I can Skype or FaceTime friends and family all over the world from my car or while I'm out walking, and see what they're doing in real time. I can send a
Glide of something cool I'm seeing or doing so they can look at it later. I can edit a single document in real time
with my friends all over the world (excellent for songwriting collaborations) and see who's writing what. Someone could literally email me a file titled "
birthdaypresentforyou.stl" and I could use a 3D printer to print my birthday present and find out what it is. (Side note: do you know how fucking
cool that is?!) I can put on a
VR kit and explore ridiculously realistic-looking environments of places I've only dreamed of, or wander around Hogwarts or the starship Enterprise or whatever. My best friend and I can play Borderlands on our own respective beds, hundreds of miles away from each other, and Skype at the same time so we can laugh and joke and play together as if we were in the same room. Distance means
nothing anymore, not even with phones. Long-distance calling is antiquated and irrelevant. Hell, you know what happened the other day?
Scientists figured out how to UNBOIL EGGS. We're well on our way to having
cloaking devices. And we may soon get an actual
replicator. LIKE STAR TREK.
I'm curious what will happen in the near future that I think is impossible right now. If you had told me 20 years ago that I'd have any tv show or movie I want at my fingertips within minutes or seconds, I'd probably have told you you were nuts. When my parents and I were stationed in Italy and we wanted to watch TV shows that were showing in the states, you know what we did? We had to have someone stateside TAPE episodes onto VHS and then MAIL the VHS cassettes to us in Italy. One episode at a time, one week at a time. Plus shipping time and cost. Now I can find it and start watching within seconds. What do I think is crazy right now? Well, space travel, but that's already being commercialized and has been for a while. Teleportation? Scientists have been working on it, and they've
succeeded - in a fashion - with quantum teleportation thanks to entangled particles. Teleportation is pretty much the last "holy shit, no way" thing I can think of in my mind as to technology. One day, I want to go from point A to point B instantly. Perhaps that will never be possible (I just don't see how it
can be) but I've seen similarly crazy things become a reality. Alternatively, I would like a robot maid (like a Roomba, but can also do my dishes and laundry) and/or cheap personal aircraft for prices comparable to a car.
We can do that, right?
