a friend of mine sent me a rather interesting link today. it describes a marvelous new invention patented by philips: a chip that, when incorporated in the tv would force viewers to watch the adds during a program (by denying the commands of the remote to switch channels or turn off the tv - or in a vcr it would disable the fast forward function during the commercial breaks of recorded movies)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/
dn9011-invention-the-tvadvert-enforcer.html
outrageous and disturbing at the same time. the first thing that popped into my mind was a scene from the movie '1984' (if you haven't read the book yet -by george orwell- go read it fast and then watch the movie, both are outstanding). the scene when o'brien, wanting to talk 'business' with winston turns off his screen, much to winston's surprise (and shock), only to tell him afterwards that party members have the privilege to turn off their screens for an hour each day! is this the future philips has envisioned for us?!
and while you're at it, you should also read ray bradbury's 'fahrenheit 451' (you might also want to watch the movie, but it's not that good). perhaps the charming dystopian futures depicted in these books aren't even that far away. (did you know that in certain states christian extremists have started burning harry potter books for their alleged promotion of witchcraft !?)
1 comment:
Yeah, read it too. Sucks bigtime. I mean, don't I get to choose what I watch and what I don't? What's more, they're charging money, so you can have back the freedom you had before.
Blah. Who needs TV anyway.
Pete
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