Sunday, December 20, 2009

Technojoy

Okay, so let me just take a paragraph or three (or five) to talk about the fantastically thrilling state of technology. WARNING: This post contains geek levels previously unknown to this blog. Please enjoy. (and a note to Molly: I WILL be talking about cinematography. :)

Too often I forget how amazing all the technology we have is, and how recent it is, since it is fed to us over the course of time. But every once in too great a while I sit back and try to appreciate it all from the perspective of my junior-high-age self. What would myself eight years ago have said if I showed me an a touch screen phone? The state of 3D movies? The BBC's HD Planet Earth series? The size of my TV? The vast and virtually limitless amount of information I have in my pocket or within arm's length at literally any and every hour of every day?

I would be dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. My jaw would hit the floor.
I just got out of the 10:30 showing of Avatar IMAX 3D. Based on the quality of the CGI and the realism of the 3D by way of double-frame-rate digital film projection and non-red-and-blue polarized glasses, my brain could probably pass a lie detector test stating that I had, in fact, just spent 2.6 captivating hours on a planet called Pandora inhabited by 10 foot tall creatures called Na'vi, fighting for their lives and flying giant lizard bat things around floating mountains.

I didn't have a phone until eighth grade, when I was only allowed it for emergency use. I had a clamshell phone without internet or unlimited texting, without one touchscreen (let alone two), and without a QWERTY keyboard. Now I have a phone that can do basically anything I can fathom, and that's without jailbreaking it. No one even used cell phones until I was in junior high. Now with mine I can see any place on the planet, along with many not on this planet, I can download and play hundreds of thousands of games, many for free. I can order movie tickets, check and mess with my bank account, email, facebook, twitter, music, and TV shows.

My first game system was a nintendo NES, which played only in two dimensions and, less than one-hundred different colors. Now I can control three dimensional characters in millions of colors with a pointer at the end of my controller which isn't even connected to the console! (physically, anyway).

So yes, I am a geek. I love technology and it brings me joy to see isn't advancement and to contemplate what it will be in the future. I'm just trying not to forget to appreciate how ridiculously far we've already come! Isn't it mind-bending?!

Expect a future post on what I think about the future of 3D movies etc.!

That is all. :D

2 comments:

Marie said...

you are a nerd.

but I must agree, technology can be mind-blowing these days.

Molly R said...

Can't say you didn't warn me... ;)