So Little Left To Need
Things have really metamorphosed in my lifetime. Of course all antiquarian people say this, but I grew up in an age when change was fast and furious. In my childhood things were pretty simple and sparse—-simple enough that there was plenty of time for my neighborhood friends and myself to fight daily battles with boredom and daydreaming. We had bicycles and not much else. But this ‘not much else’ left plenty of time to think, to plan, to be creative, to develop relationships amongst ourselves. A trip to get some ice cream, or waiting endlessly for the Good Humor man was sometimes the most exciting thing on the agenda, right behind arguing about endless major ’stuff’, like who gets the odd piece of pizza, and trying to ‘pull the wool over’ someone’s eyes. We mostly knew ‘which end was up’, but were equally determined to make it otherwise.
Early on came television, but there was always just one television and everyone in the family had to pull in different ways about which program to watch. There were only like 4 or 5 channels so the choice was limited. Most of what we watched would today seem so puerile and simple-minded. Then again, what most of us refuse to watch today is shallow, loud, dim-witted insufferableness. When I am in the mood for that I write it. Wandering around was the most common adventure, and back then it was no big deal to disappear in the morning and not return home until supper. Parents didn’t worry much about anything happening to us, so we kind of wandered wherever we felt inclined to go. Sometimes, at age 10 or so, we would board a train to New York City, use the subway, and end up at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers. And we could afford it from a meager allowance. Sports was a big deal to us ragamuffins, but it was all neighborhood pick up games, no organized youth leagues of any sort. At any rate, the list of things that could, with some creativity, be made neat for us, was endless. And it all came, mostly snail-paced. Now our needs are met endlessly to the point where, with all the gadgets at our disposal we can all be alone together. Real live people are hardly necessary to be physically present. And our choice of whom to connect to via some media gadget is endless. Neighborhood communities are a thing of the past, we have internet connections to replace all that. It is almost strange to look at someone without seeing something attached to their ears or find them not staring at a device in their hand or on their wrist, or a tablet on their lap.
There was more pressure back then to have diverse friends, in that what was in our face daily was the menu—there were no chat rooms, no varied internet outlets for selecting others a duplicate of our own peculiarities. Today, if you are still a flat-earth person there are probably others like that across the globe. I just Googled ‘Flat Earth Society’ and came up with several hits. There you go,
a ‘birds of a feather’ just for such people. Since there is strength in numbers this poses a threat to everyone on just about everything—that is, there is now the means for every small or large group to create havoc of some sort, including terrorism. It is now a vastly different world.
No one argues today over which TV show to watch, there are TV’s in every room, enough for everyone in the family to go off and watch whatever they want. And there are hundreds of channels. But that is not enough, we have the internet with thousands of connections available throughout the world. There are chat rooms, twitter, text messaging, games, movies, and of course Google— where any question about anything can be answered immediately. No need for any trip to the library spending endless hours with card files to find books with the answers. Children today are never really alone since gadget communication is there permanently 24 hrs a day. Nor do they do much choosing, or creating, since activities for them are pretty much planned out. They are not much turned loose to ‘hang out’ with whom and where they choose as it is too dangerous. I can’t remember, when going to school when young, that it ever remotely crossed my mind that I could get shot, or some kook might come into the school and massacre everyone in sight, then kill themselves. Realistically though, every child with access to a computer can venture into all sorts of ‘worlds’ unbeknownst to parents.Perhaps wandering around a neighborhood in the past was a bit safer for kids than wandering the internet today.
It is hard to have any idea what access to the internet has on any child’s sexual development. When I was young it was rather difficult to gain access to naked people pics and any sex movies were grainy vanilla sex with hoods over the faces. Today, every kind of sex with attractive participants can be found all over the internet. What this means for kids whose hormones are not yet driving their sex behaviors is not clear, at least not to me. It is even less clear what it means for those whose hormones are driving their sexual energy. That ends this paragraph. Sex today is less special, easier to come by, and not the big deal it was back when I was young.
Recently I read about some device, I forget the name, which is being developed so that you can sit in your recliner, hook up this device and channel in any kind of experience desired, and with this head set it will give you a real 3-D experience for like going down the Grand Canyon, or bunjee jumping, or cliff climbing, or rafting—viewing anything in the world you wish to have the feeling of at the moment. Where will this all end? Even teachers are becoming obsolete. A student can learn things from very competent courses on the internet, email questions at any time, and proceed at an individual pace. Maybe most schools will really become a thing of the past. Wow. Why go on a trip? We can sit and feel like we are really there minus any physical effort on our part to really, for example, climb a trail in the Grand Canyon. Maybe sexual experiences will be something we just program into a headset describing our partner with a list of sexual activities we wish to experience. Probably something will need to be attached to our genitals to complete the experience. That will sure change dating and any need to be attractive ourselves. Halle Berry will be available by subscription. Every bed-time will have the potential to become an orgasmic adventure (what is your favorite sexual activity?” “Oh, I don’t know, I have had so many”).
I also saw recently a small plane, which dissembles enough to fit into a van. You attach the wings, sit in the pilot seat, stand up and run a few feet to get the plane going, then up it goes and you close the trap door where your feet were running along and away you go soaring with the eagles. Who will need all our highways in the future? Probably just need special head gear on the ground to guard against something more sizable than bird poop. Not to mention dressing up just to sit in your back yard. Then again, dressing down has been in vogue now for some time. A recent poll of high school males stated that 30% of them had received at least one email naked pic of some female in their class. It is not clear why it is almost always the girl who agrees to pose naked, if we ignore Brett Favre’s private part.
Cars are in the final stage of development which drive themselves while you read a book or whatever. I don’t comprehend how these kind of cars will ever be legal on the highway. Who wants to get totaled by a car whose computer went down or malfunctioned? And what about the speed of these cars on the road? Will everyone then be traveling at the same snail-pace speed? All I really need is a Mac Truck with a snow plough in front, a gas peddle, and a horn.
A business opened up recently where you circle what you want for dinner each night of the week, and all the ingredients and a recipe arrive at your doorstep each day. Then we just need some sort of programable device that cooks anything any which way desired once programmed, then we just dump in the ingredients and wait for the finished meal.
Retail stores will likely be a thing of the past with giant companies like Amazon.com providing whatever substance or gadget we need. Amazon.com is even talking now about drones to deliver it to our place. Now when I go for my long walks, it won’t be mosquitoes, but hordes of drones buzzing around in the air. Has Amazon.com ever considered that drone hunting will likely become a major sport—down the drone and get a surprise package.
We already have perfect pictures, pictures which take reality and make it even more appealing via Photo Shop. I guess those 3-D video head set reality gadgets can make a trip down the Grand Canyon more impressive than reality if they use photo shop as part of the presentation. I don’t want to even think about the enhancement of a sexual experience, although after photo shop all of us can be marketable porn stars, if we eliminate performance.
Most jobs I guess will require little thinking, just putting the proper information into a computer and waiting for the decision and directions to follow. Many things we usually have to think about can now be done faster and more accurately by a computer. We are becoming more computer aides than great thinkers. Computers have become the great thinkers. Our destiny is more and more not to think but to provide information to computers to think. If they need more input they will inform us to go fetch. Step and fetchit’s we have become.
There will, I guess, be no such thing as normal in most matters, and every set of peculiar people on any matter can communicate with similar peculiars anywhere in the world. No need to feel different out and about any more, or, I guess to be out and about much at all. Perhaps countries and nations will be done away with and replaced by global cabals of like minded souls. I mean, why not, hardly anyone is involved that much anymore with neighbors or community groups, voting, etc so it is only natural that our identified group become mirror images of ourselves and connected via internet. These internet cabals are rapidly growing, and every minority of any ilk, exist as a potential terrorist group. Each group demands their way and each group now has the means to create consequences for failure to meet their demands. Oh boy! This is going to be a bumpy ride.
With our ‘reality headsets’ there is no need to argue over how often and what kind of sex, it is all programmed into our reality headset so we can orgasm when we are damn ready to do so. Probably be banned on public transportation though. I have seen enough bad sights in my life without having to put up with that. I once, on the way out of a Forest Preserve where I used to rendezvous with some deer to feed them apples, saw a lawn party of maybe around 20 people. All but one person was chatting with someone on a cell phone. What I thought was rather rude, apparently was rather chic. I have been tempted, when on a bus or train or in a store etc, to just pull out a cell phone and manufacture a conversation which would make me appear to be a very important powerful affluent person, like maybe negotiating a $500,000 contract over the phone with Donald Trump. I once waited in line at the bank for a teller while the person at the teller window answered his cell phone and discussed a work related problem with one of his workers over the phone while the rest of us stood there and waited for the call to end. If someone cuts me off driving I don’t use my finger anymore lest I get shot. That can work to one’s advantage though. One time I couldn’t resist using the finger to someone reading a newspaper while driving on the highway. He got so mad he would pass me, then slow down real slow and finally I pulled along side him and reached inside by jacket inner pocket like I was going to pull out a gun—he faded quickly from my rear view mirror. If I had a gun I might have made a U-turn and headed right back at him. Whee!!!!!!!
Music will be a digital phenomenon and we will be able to synthesize our own voice in ways which will make all of us perfect (Louvin Brothers like) singers accompanied by the perfect instrumentation. Musicians will no longer play a guitar but synthesize the sound by computerization. Audience applause, I guess, will be for the synthesizer machine.
Perhaps at birth we can have implants to replace all the stuff which today we attach to our ears for communication. Probably no need to even talk, just let the brain waves speak for us, in perfect English with the perfect annunciation. No thanks, I create enough animosity selectively communicating my thoughts.
The perfect amount of sleep will be attained via an implantation which will put us to sleep as needed for the right length of time in the right stages of sleep in the right order and duration. Every night will be a perfect sleep.
Moods will be generated on demand. Your team loses the Super Bowl—no problem, you press your personal happiness button and you will be dancing in the street with the winners
We keep moving closer and closer to a world in which, if affluent enough, will have no needs. My question is, “but who will we really be even though we can be anything we want to be?” What do we really feel about anything when we can feel anyway we want to feel about anything anytime? Suppose we can finally tamper with the genetic components which govern aging and not age? What then? The ‘same old same old’ for ever and ever? Raising kids will not be a parental challenge anymore, kids will be raised by implanted computer chips in children which ensure proper behavior and problem solving by kids, as they meet formative year challenges with the perfect computer directed solutions and feelings.
What if the next evolutionary advancement is not survival of the fittest, but computers which create species? If they don’t look and think like me I am going to be pissed. Suppose brain transplants become available? Then, if a child is a jerk of some sort, or retarded, we just go to Amazon.com and pick out a new customized brain right down to our own desired specs for our soon to become ‘new’ child.? Frankly, I would not have trusted my parents on that one. Then again, none of us are the same person over our lifetime. We all change, sometimes for the better, some times for the worse and really, it is amazing that as many marriages last as long as they do. I guess we won’t have to go to orphanages to adopt a child, we can simply go to the neighborhood genetic lab and pick out the right chromosomal sperm and egg to meet our specs.Then, when the test tube baby is far along enough to live outside the lab, we just go and pick this new adopted ‘child’ up like today we do a new car. Maybe this lab created kid will be guaranteed to be MVP in the NFL or your money back. At last we will all be perfect. No more struggling to find the most attractive, smart, and personable mate. Decide when you are ready for a mate and then just grab the first one who passes by. It sort of sounds like global incest to me.
Strangely, aligned with the nature of life reality, we ourselves change with time. Some more than others. Few probably change as much as I have. I am no longer the shy, sickly, socially ill at ease, self absorbed, obscure, emotionally precarious, insecure, kid of long ago. I had just about every childhood disease one could get, I had frequent severe headaches which always led to vomiting, and almost always on Sundays. Just weird. I was deeply religious in the classic sense of believing in the righteousness of my inherited religion. Billy Graham was a admired demigod. I was a die-hard Republican just like my parents with Barry Goldwater another demigod. My country, right or wrong, was the mental mode back then. Bomb the Vietnamese into oblivion. Jail the draft dodgers. If some people didn’t like the way they were being treated they should just leave the country. No one was forcing them to stay. Never did I really hate any group per se, they were just never part of my world. The town I grew up in was like 20% black but I don’t recall ever having had any hostile encounters with any black, or anger toward them, or ever having had many meaningful conversation with them until my senior year in high school when I went out for track and cross-country. I was surprised to find out on TV just how angry they all were. After all, I never had any bad experiences with any of them.
Not that everything changes, because it doesn’t. From the git-go, pets were always among my most treasured friends—dogs, cats, rabbits, goats, sheep, horses, a pigeon, chickens. Today, I have little sympathy with organized religions. The Golden Rule is sufficient for me. Most of organized religion seems a farce and the trouble they generate is of the worst kind. I feel now that when I was young I had braces on my brain. My politics moved from far right to I guess far left. I am still a loner, but of a different bent. I embrace diversity these days, and while appreciative of my own good fortunes, the empathy for others less fortunate weighs on my mind. I am relatively healthy in a delicate sort of way. Getting a doctorate in Physiology helped me protect my delicate physical state. And most important, with time, I learned to better understand when enough is enough, that enough is as good as a feast. I have no expensive hobbies unless having a nice home environment and eating well are considered hobbies. I have never bought anything on time except my first new car. The interest saved, and the luck with stocks have made me affluent enough that I can easily spend far more money on the less fortunate than I do on myself. Ironically, it is Republican policies which enable me to amass more and more money without doing more than shuffling papers around. I have a much lower tax rate than those who actually work hard at one or more jobs. Weird. Income from financial speculations exceeds my pension and once I shift it to my FANAFI Fund there are no taxes, just deductions.
Any way, before I generate a new musing here, suffice it say that while so much has, and is changing all around me, I too have changed tremendously over the years. Still for most older chaps, the changes in the world outpace the changes in ourselves. It can make us dizzy.
Enough. Stop the world, I want to get off. Never mind, I will soon be evicted by death anyway. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash wherever you are (you have to be old to relate to this).
