These 19th Century Postcards Predicted Our Future

That's because the internet and pocket computing have made little difference to how people live their lives. I know this is heresy on slashdot

Not heresy, just the ignorance of someone who has had these devices all their life. You have every single book ever writen before Micley Mouse stole copyright, you have a camera, movie camera, sound recorder, telephone, calendar, calculator, address book in your pocket. You no longer have pay phones.

If you wanted to contact someone who didn't live close by in pre-internet times, you spent quite a sum to talk over the phone, or you wrote a letter on paper and set it to them, and they'd get it in a week or two. If you wanted to send a photo, you had it printed and again, they'd have it in a week or two. If you took a picture, you couldn't see it for a week because that's usually how long it took to get film processed.

If your band wanted to record its own album, tough shit -- nobody recorded without an RIAA contract. There was no such thing as indie music. Nobody would hear your band unless they were drinking in the bar you played in. Today your band in empowered, if you're good you may go viral on the internet.

If you wanted to write, nobody would read it without the blessing of a book publisher. If you wanted to express your opinion on politics, you wrote a letter to the editor and he would get it in a week, and then not print it. Letters to teh editor are printed at the editor's whim. Now, anybody can publish a blog and if it's good it will be read.

the fact remains that being poor and having a crappy smartphone still means you're poor.

If you're poor you're not going to have a crappy smartphone, you'll have a crappy dumb phone, and then only if your government or a charity supplies it.

Their has been no increase in equitable power and wealth distribution due to the internet

Nor has it given us free energy, flying cars, and world peace. So fucking what? That wasn't its intended purpose. Its purpose was communication, and it's been serving its purpose well.

We've just got some new toys.

No, we've got some new tools. Very powerful tools. The internet is more world-changing as the Gutenberg press was. I know, I lived most of my life without it. Without the internet, you wouldn't have my Nobot stories or the Paxil Diaries. You would have never seen that shot from an airplane of the last shuttle launching. before the internet, if a cop beat you, well, you tripped and fell. Now someone's got a camera phone aimed at him.

The Rodney King riots would not have happened ten years earlier, because nobody would have made a movie of him getting beaten. Powerful tools, son. I did without them for almost half a centurey, be glad you have them.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/evMvN2HYd9M/these-19th-century-postcards-predicted-our-future

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