Monday, September 5, 2011

Morlocks with iphones.

How can the economy be bad, the future so dreadful, when we have such wonderful technology?

Maybe because only the wealthy can truly partake of the bounty?

I've got myself a new toy; an iphone. But, it ain't cheap. It ain't something I would have bought 10 years ago (well, it didn't exist, but you know what I mean.) Actually, my wife bought it, because I'm still really cheap.

But I'm not dense enough not to see what a Marvel it is.

The smart and clever among us just keep partaking of the bounty...but the not so smart and clever just keep falling further behind.

It's like some kind of evolutionary endgame. It's the Eloi and the Morlocks, I tell you.

I identify with the Eloi, because I'm a bleeding heart liberal and because I think I've been lucky more than smart.

What can we do about it?

The biggest thing would be to make sure that the smart engines and devices are available to all. That the smartest of Eloi will be able to raise themselves up. And the dumbest Morlocks will fall way.

So I ask you. Have we done that?

Almost as soon as I wrote this, I knew I hadn't got it right. Buster immediately posted that every 12 year old in Asia has a iphone knockoff.

So maybe it isn't access to technology that separates the Eloi from the Morlocks, but the ability to use that technology effectively.

In fact, this may be a great leveler. Any poor but clever person might be able to raise himself up, and every rich but dumb person will piss away their money.

But I'm still pretty sure that we're going to keep seeing an ever widening divide between the two types of people.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dunc, I hate to shit on your parade, but virtually every 12 year old whore in Asia, and that includes China to Indonesia has an iPhone. China even has fake apple stores that are more real than apples, with fake product to boot.

I think you need to understand that the iPhone is now the status symbol of the vain worldwide.

That a 12 year old chinese or jap girl will give up her viginity for an iPhone is telling. More about our times than the product.

Duncan McGeary said...

Yeah, I kind of thought that might be the case.

In fact, I'm going to rewrite the damn thing, if you don't mind.

H. Bruce Miller said...

Could afford an iPhone, don't have one, don't want one, don't think I ever will.

So does that make me a Morlock or an Eloi? Or am I the guy from the 19th century who arrived in the time machine?