Saturday, December 03, 2005

ancient artifacts

walked to the post office
to mail a promo pack
to this restaurant where i'm trying
to help my friend get a gig.
on the way back,
we stopped at the kimbell
'n' spent some time strolling around
looking at the antiquities:
pictures that were painted in china
back in the 13th century
'n' like that.

on the way home, it occurred to me
that the digital media
so popular today
aren't really designed to survive the ages.
google wants to put every book in the world
online
etc.

it seems to me
that placing the fate of western civ
in the hands of a coupla corporations'
worth of technocrats
is the best way of ensuring
that our culcha becomes
extinct'er than the aztecs
when that technology goes away
or becomes unsupportable.

somebody told me
that prior to the advent
of digital photography,
the average shutterbug
took maybe 200 pics a yr.
now, they take thousands.
but i can easily imagine
future archaeologists
scratching their heads 'n' wondering
why it was that ppl in the 21st century
stopped taking pictures.

at the rate we're going,
all that will survive
will be the works of stephen king
'n' tom clancy
'n' all the other hacks
pubbed by
the only publishers of hardcopy books
that'll be able to stay in biz
once google gets their wish
'n' making a living publishing books in print
becomes as untenable as making a living
publishing a print newspaper.

my sweetie sez that then
the only artwork that survives
will be the stuff that massey
pounds and hammers
out of junk that he finds
on his peregrinations around the city.
maybe that's not such a bad thing.

as my friend farren likes to say,
"the aztec calendar just ran out."

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ya mean this ain't gonna last forever? Our civilization is doomed? Damn man I was really hoping my great, great, great, grandkids would enjoy a steady diet of Soilent Green Lite!

7:44 AM  

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