Post #2503691

"Attention!", shouts a mynah. I am not too proud to say I'm wrong when I am, so there, I was, I'll admit it. Against my most cynical reserves, television did turn out to be the university in every home that it promised, and the telephone also did end loneliness. It worked best of all once we turned it off, went next door, and invited our neighbors over to teach us stuff. Someone always brought food. Hunger, unsurprisingly, was also just a logistics problem, and the logistics were embarrassingly simple. Nothing, not mandatory office playdays, not outlawing aloneness, no sociability programs, was even remotely as effective to bring people together as forcing people to get audio and video working in digital meetings. But first, we had to build it all so we could shut it off. We stopped buying all of that shit and, more efficiently, started to meet. Self-obviation? Yes, it even lived up to its promise of emancipation, instead of cluttering our lives, it taught us that if we stack it all in a pile and never turn any of it on again, we'll be alright and we'll be safe. I said it would never work, and I'm getting a lot of I told you sos. I deserve them. https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/now#20j