I have been observing this subject since early 2009… or was it winter 2008?.. well anyway, now everyone is talking about it. Art Director of Nine Inch Nails, Rob Sheridan (who saddened me by putting his brilliant and funny blog on hiatus, but welcomes you to stalk his every move and thought on Twitter) is musing if the future is here. Well yes iPhones and Google Earth would have really blown our minds 20 years ago.

But where are the robots they promised us in all the movies from 20-30 years ago?! Where are the jetpacks?

The point I want to make is that the future world as it gradually unfurls to us everyday, appears to be hidden in our hand held devices and laptops. We still drive basically the same cars as they were invented. Four wheels, doors opening side-ways. The light signals system is still highly primitive - yellow blinks for Turn, red lights up for Stop. But inside the cars we have super smart computers and GPS-systems that substitute the reality interface. GPS is omni-present without every leaving its small device

Who ever thought that satellites will be used for civil car driving instead of star wars?

I remember when I was a kid I knew my neighborhood as the back of my hand. But when a stray stranger would ask for a specific address - a street name so and so - my friends and me would be puzzled. We were surprised to find out that we never use official street address to locate buildings and places. We had special local names for each house in the neighbor hood. The tallest building was called "the 12-storey", then we had "the old" and "the new kindergarten". There were two buildings that stood next to each and we built to one design. They would be differentiated by the stores located in their ground floor - "grocery" and "hardware" stores relatively. We knew the landscape of our world perfectly - every crack in the pavement, every tree and every house.

Nowadays, even delivery boys brush off your explanations when you try to offer directions using such landmarks as "the monument to a so-and-so opposite the building". Everybody has a map in their phone, or at least can grab a print out from Google Maps... Well I forget the print out on the desk almost everytime, but that is not the point. :)

We are gradually forgetting how to work with the real, brick-and-mortar, atom-arena interface. Why bother with reading the street name plates if GPS thingy will announce "You have reached your destination" in the smooth operator voice. Why pay attention to details in the street around you?

I still believe that getting around with a jetpack would assume knowing the neighborhood. Because you rely on the gravity and laws of physics for transportation, not a voice in a magic box.

Otherwise we end up thinking that a photo is made by a bird in the camera box like the Flintstones cartoon describes it. We move forward and we reach the post-modern future, but our consciousness is still in the prehistoric past. 

Mythology is our guide in the world ruled by the gadget gods (dei ex machina).

Current music: Aa - Thumper

Picture via http://petitinvention.wordpress.com/