"There is no question machines will be smarter than people. And we won't have to think so hard."
-- John Malone, President of TCI, at the 1995 NCTA convention (on the future of television)
Doesn't it scare you that a major cable network executive could even consider the possibility that Television makes us think? At all?
Last night I watched Big Brother for the first time, at least for any length of time. The conversations I was watching were far less interesting than those I might have at my neighbor's house. In fact, I really should visit my neighbors more often, at least there would be some mutual interaction. Do you watch this stuff? Do you enjoy it?
A fellow blogger pointed out a new site, ChangeThis, a site founded by a group of authors to publish manifestos about society, media, communication. I read with interest their belief that media, and the control of media, is stripping us the right to free debate, open conversation, intelligent discourse. This is obvious to me. Isn't it obvious to you?
Read the recent article in Washington Monthly, by Ted Turner. "My Beef With Big Media". Ted's knowledge of the issues--the climate of the industry, the obstacles, the way it was and the way it is--it's all very lucid. Don't you find it alarming that somebody you consider a media mogul is claiming impotence in the face of current media consolidation?
Are we all just protoplasmic blobs sitting and absorbing? Is it that bad? Perhaps media has plugged directly into the same sensory systems that make drugs and alchohol so appealing. In politics, in life, in movies, especially in television, the most profound effect is a numbing one, running away while standing in one place.
If media is conspiring to turn us into morons, who will tell us about it?
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