Rates for international use of cell phones are generally not good. Being in Europe for a month I am trying a mix of ideas to solve this including Skype on my phone and computer, and a new small Alcatel smartish phone I bought in Paris this morning. Consumer electronics generally fall into two categories; the ones we use because we have to and they work, like laptops, and the ones we fall in love with, like IPODS. Nearly all tech can fit into one of these camps, and when companies who make electronics start to realize what you love, the others may tend to fade away. It is not impossible to imagine a world with IPADS , but no netbooks for instance. I don’t know anyone who says that they love their netbooks, yet I must confess that I would rather do a lot of things, like write this blog, or an e-mail for that matter from one rather than from an IPAD, and my guess is that a lot of other people would also. This means that it is possible for a technology to die which we all would like better, but that we don’t love as much. This is a confusing point, but one that is on my mind a lot when considering my own business, my political ideas and what to pack for these long trips. A good example of this came during my packing. I have a Kindle (and many of these other bloody devices I mention) and it seemed that my dream of finally being able to travel without physical books had arrived. I (thought) could access everything I wanted. Yet as I was packing I looked up on my shelf and saw a biography of Antonin Artaud that I have been wanting to read for years. My first response was to take it to the curb and give it away. I figured that I could either get the book on Kindle, or if not there were 800,000 books that I could read on Kindle, so I could live without Artaud. But the desire to read the book was too big, and since the book was small I threw it in the luggage and am enjoying it tonight. So, this brings up a a key question for me about choice. If this book would have been a hard cover and large, I wouldn't have brought it, and I believe that my trip would have been less fulfilling for not having read the book, even though my suitcase would have been lighter. The printing press, the publisher and Amazon have given me a choice, but in some ways I feel that the choice will disappear, and while I am celebrating the new, cool and light, I will have missed something more important which long preceded the cool technologies. There is one more key component to this, which is even harder to come to terms with than the general market economy of the possibility of a winner taking all. There is a human aspect in when and how we use items, not on what we use them for, which is often confused, and can dull our sensitivities if we are not careful. I was reminded of this with the Alcatel phone purchase. I really like this light little red phone with a keypad, but have only made one call with it, and certainly know that it is not in league with my I-Phone. I had a similar experience though almost 6 years ago when abandoning my Blackberry in the states for a less expensive, not so intelligent Erickson flip phone for use in Germany. My wife had just had a baby and I slept with that phone, ready for her to call when she was feeding my new baby daughter,or just wanting to tell me how they were both doing. The ring tone made me happy. Somehow I wish I had that old phone and ring tone back, even though the phone did only the most boring of things; make calls. I may have had the same experience with a Blackberry in Germany as I did with this phone, but maybe not. The Blackberry was a compilation of my work, my friendships, my anxieties and appointments. The Erickson was the potential of a word from my wife, or a sound from my baby. It didn’t carry the baggage of my entire life with it.
So far my Alcatel is baggage free, and my Artaud bio is a single book that is transporting me to another time and place. I am not sure I can say that for all of my smart devices, even the ones I love.
2 comments:
My bet is that the Artaud book will be on the Kindle one day. As we move to a digital world, the first thing that is being replaced is media, and someday we will have the option of replacing actual experiences with digital ones. Then your question will be really interesting. At first the lure is convenience (MP3s are actually a terrible format for storing and listening to hi quality music - one reason the industry's response was so flat footed), then selection, than scale leads to superior economics, then the idea of quality itself becomes replaced as the original experience is displaced. Like the experience of watching a movie at home vs. in a theater. So maybe it's happening already. The thing I will miss most about books is how they feel in my hand, and how the light at different times of day reflects on the pages, like the warm light of sunset reading on my porch. Yes I will miss that, I am not sure someone will bother to digitize that.
You are right on both of your points. there is no reason to think that everything will not be digitized, and i am glad for that. Your romanticism is also something so viscerally real, that it can't be overlooked. i bought a book at my favorite bookstore in Paris yesterday and read part of it while on the grass of the place Des Vosges with clouds passing overhead. An experience so much like what you describe with the light, that I hope we don't forget how it can transport us. thanks.
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