Category Archives: Technology

Life’s Magical Moments

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By Bill Shein
April 14, 2011

The science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” One implication, of course, is that today’s technology – from hand-held gadgets that wirelessly connect us to all human knowledge, to social-networking platforms that link people across time and space, to numerous online services that offer great utility – has enabled us to live in what would previously be considered a “magical” realm.

It’s important to establish this context, because a few weeks ago, while engaged in a very old-fashioned, pre-Internet activity – reading a library book in bed – something truly magical happened. And it was something that couldn’t happen with an e-book reader or fancy iPad, though I’m not dead-set against reading pixels rather than print.

In a delicious irony, my nifty experience – which I’ll relate below – happened while I was reading David Ulin’s excellent little book, “The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time.”

Ulin is book editor of the Los Angeles Times. In 2009 he wrote a column about reading and the Internet age, and his growing sense that today’s frenetic flow of information has diminished our ability to slow down and immerse ourselves in deep, contemplative thought. He suggested that we are increasingly distracted by “the sound and fury” of fragmentary, seemingly urgent, but ultimately irrelevant information. And that it’s to our detriment.

Our near-religious, unquestioning embrace of technology is fueled by a central-but-unstated promise: Thanks to the “magic” of this gadget, or that online tool, life will be easier, better, and more predictable. Based on habits and preferences, and those of aggregated others, a “recommendation engine” will ensure you never see a movie you aren’t sure to like, or buy a book you won’t enjoy. At long last, security!

While no doubt useful, our fondness for these algorithms is also troubling. Do we really want our experiences to be predictably “good”? Because it’s been my experience that life’s most interesting, memorable, exciting, thought-provoking, and valuable moments are not usually the result of careful planning or predictive algorithms. Instead, they happen when things go a bit wrong, or when some random occurrence or happy accident puts us in the path of a previously unknown person or idea. Unpredictability is what gives life its magic and richness.

Like when your car breaks down and your day takes an unexpected turn. Or you walk down one street instead of another and cross paths with someone, randomly, who changes your life’s trajectory, literally or figuratively. Or you stumble across a book – left in a coffee shop or in a heap on a curbside – or perhaps a newspaper column(!) that changes how you see things.

Which brings me back to me, immersed late one night in David Ulin’s book, considering technology and predictive algorithms. Appropriately, I discovered Ulin’s book only because a librarian had shelved it in the “New Books” section, a collection of otherwise unrelated materials that no recommendation engine could possibly assemble. I had found it by pure chance.

The hour was late, and it would soon be lights out. My cats were in their usual spot on the comforter, signifying bedtime. Turning the page, expecting more text, instead I found a $10 bill stuck deep into the book’s spine. A yellow sticky note was attached. It said, “Enjoy This Gift!”

Wow.

Someone had done something wonderful and fascinating. Something more magical, I’d say, than a game of Angry Birds on an iPhone. Something that made me feel good for days. And it required just pen and paper. (And, um, $10.)

Did this generous person put money tagged with “Enjoy This Gift!” into other library books? Who knows.

CUT TO: Everyone reading this column racing to the library, en masse, to rifle the pages of book after book until their fingers bleed.

By the way, I didn’t keep the ten-spot. Instead, a few days ago I placed it deep in the spine of another library book, with another sticky note attached.

CUT TO: Anyone who didn’t previously race to the library now racing there to rifle the pages of book after book until their fingers bleed.

The lesson? That the true magic of life – and human beings – can never be captured in lines of computer code or represented in liquid crystal. It simply exists within us.

Even in a distracted age, if we stop long enough to listen, we’ll hear it.

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Bill Shein enjoys receiving gifts of all kinds.

 

That Old iPad Religion

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By Bill Shein
April 8, 2010 

Welcome! Thank you for visiting Apple.com’s “Frequently Asked Questions” about the new iPad. Here you’ll find answers to common questions about the latest “magical and revolutionary” device from the mind of Steve Jobs – hallowed be His name, long may He reign.

QUESTION: Who will benefit most from the iPad? 

ANSWER: The iPad is for anyone who has ever said, “You know, my digital life is not confusing or expensive enough. I have an iPhone that costs $120 a month for unlimited service. I also have a MacBook laptop and pay for high-speed Internet access so I can watch videos. I have a giant LCD television with Blu-Ray DVD player and satellite TV, too. But I don’t have anything that’s bigger than an iPhone, smaller than a laptop, less expensive than an LCD TV, and which allows me to do some – but not all! – of the things that my other devices can do.” If that sounds like you, visit an Apple Store today!

QUESTION: When I opened the box, I found my new iPad was wrapped in a black turtleneck. Why?

ANSWER: The black turtleneck is the official symbol of our iLord and iMaster, Steve Jobs, praised be He. Every iPad comes lovingly wrapped in a turtleneck that has been Blessed by Steve™ at no additional charge. As you may have heard, five of these shirts were once worn by Steve. If you get one – which will smell strongly of pure genius – you’ll win a tour of Apple’s secret design studio. During your visit, you’ll learn about upcoming products like the Everlasting GatesStopper and the iHuxley, the perfect device for our brave new world of permanent distraction.

QUESTION: What is “magical” about the iPad?

ANSWER: We asked Rinion Celeendthir, the Middle Earth elf who helped design the iPad, to answer this question: “The iPad was inspired by the Old Elvish saying: ‘Lle naa haran e’ nausalle,’ which means, ‘You are king in your imagination.’ I’d say more, but I must now drink the elixir of Miruvor, made from the flowers of Yavanna, and then alight to my home in the clouds!”

QUESTION: What? I don’t get it.

ANSWER: Exactly. Next question?

QUESTION: I thought owning one of the first iPads would make me “cool.” But some people say it just opens me up to ridicule. That rushing out to buy an iPad is a sign that my happiness doesn’t come from within, but instead, depends upon illusory, profit-driven fantasies crafted by the corporate marketing machine.

(There is stunned silence. Without warning, black-turtlenecked security guards, wearing smiling Steve Jobs masks, forcibly remove the questioner from this FAQ.)

QUESTIONER (screaming): Hey, this is just a Web page! How can that happen?

ANSWER: Everything about Apple is different, including FAQs that feature magical realism. Let’s continue.

QUESTION: What do people at Apple say about Steve Jobs behind his back?

ANSWER: “Steve Jobs is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

QUESTION: Hmmm, that sounds familiar. Where’s that from?

(The questioner is ejected from the FAQ.)

ANSWER: Last question. Yes, the young man over there.

QUESTION: Who builds each iPad? I’ve read about poor working conditions, use of child labor, nonpayment of overtime, workers forced to live in company dormitories, and hazardous waste issues at factories that assemble Apple products.

ANSWER (nervously): Um, do not worry about those things, young Jobsian acolyte. Steve Jobs is pure of heart and deed! He audits Apple suppliers and factories in Asia and produces a fancy annual “progress” report – even if Apple rarely stops using suppliers that violate its policies or local laws. But do not worry about these things. Gaze instead at the beautiful, shiny iPad! Feel its touch screen! Watch its jaunty TV commercials! Marvel at its ingenious design! In the Church of Jobs, all is well! So put on your black turtleneck, buy an iPad, and ask no more questions. And let us now say together, “Praise Steve!”

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Bill Shein is just kidding around. Seriously! He already owns 47 iPads!

 

End ‘America’s Army’ Funding

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By Bill Shein
February 19, 2010

War is many things, but it’s certainly not a game. That’s why we can’t allow a violent video game – designed by the Pentagon specifically for children as young as 13 years old – to be used as a military recruitment tool. 

Over the last decade, the U.S. Army has spent more than $33 million to develop, launch, and market an online, multiplayer, “first-person shooter” game called “America’s Army.” It can be downloaded for free by anyone 13 or older. It’s also available for Xbox and PlayStation. Launched in 2002, it’s now in its third major release. 

Like other violent video games, America’s Army boasts an “immersive” experience, featuring highly “realistic” imagery of military operations, “realistic” sounds of weapons, and “realistic” missions against a digital enemy known as “OpFor,” or “opposition force.” 

A Gamespot.com review praises audio that “helps you feel like you’re really in the middle of brutal firefights.” Which, of course, you’re not. Another review gushed over the way players are wounded and killed: “It’s pretty realistic – you take one or two shots and you go limp, you take one more and you’re done.” 

How do we know what was spent to create America’s Army? It took a Freedom of Information Act request by Gamespot.com to unearth the budget. But the Army claims that releasing full details would be “damaging to the U.S. Army’s position in the video-game industry.” 

The Army has a “position” in the video-game industry? 

The Pentagon points out that the game includes “training” exercises that must be completed before entering “combat operations.” The training highlights teamwork, leadership, and following rules of engagement – components, it says, of real-life military training. 

To its credit, the Army is open about the game’s recruitment goals. The game’s Web site features many links to goarmy.com. It also includes sections about army careers and profiles of soldiers under the heading “Real Heroes” – seamlessly merging “fun,” video-game fiction with real-life soldiering. 

In testimony before Congress, the Army has boasted that America’s Army is its most effective recruitment tool. A survey at Fort Benning conducted by the game’s developers found that fully 60 percent of new recruits played the game at least five times a week. Four percent said they enlisted specifically because of the game. 

And a 2008 MIT study found that “30 percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of the game and, even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined.” 

At present, the game has nearly 10 million registered users. America’s Army tournaments are held regularly online and around the country. To participate, sometimes you have to contact your local recruiting office, as was the case with a contest in Odessa, Texas, earlier this month. 

America’s Army is rated “Teen” for “blood and violence.” Yet there’s no mention of real war or violence on americasarmy.com. The puffs of “blood” in the game aren’t real. Instead, gamers are told that in the military, “You will discover a life filled with adventure and meet other smart, motivated people like you.” 

The bottom line? To penetrate youth culture and boost enlistment, the Pentagon has merged entertainment with war in a highly sophisticated way. But as noted in a devastating ACLU report in 2008, America’s Army violates the U.N. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child – which the U.S. Senate ratified in 2002. 

Among other responsibilities, the Optional Protocol requires that any recruitment of a child under 17 take place only with the approval of a parent or guardian. Yet parental consent in not required to play America’s Army. This is one of many reasons that citizens and parents must demand that Congress close down this project.  

Of course, that’s unlikely. Why? Because it was Congress, in 1999, that called on the military to find “aggressive, innovative experiments” to increase enlistments. 

Mission accomplished. But at what cost?

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Bill Shein longs for the simple, long-ago pleasures of Pong.