Posted on 12/29/2019 5:15:30 AM PST by NOBO2012
True story: my Park City neighbor checks on our house once a week while we are in Michigan. She sent me a text yesterday saying that when she entered the house she heard something upstairs so she went up to check. (Aside: A #1, don’t EVER do that! Especially if you are a sweet trusting liberal who actually believes ‘it could never happen here’ and therefore would never dream of owning a gun let alone carry one.) She found the TV in the bedroom on. She attempted to turn it off with first the TV remote and then the Dish remote. Neither worked. She changed batteries in both but they still wouldn’t shut it off so she unplugged it.
Of course I had no idea why this would happen but much to my dismay, neither did Raj. He’s tech support! He’s supposed to know everything! To say that’s creepy is an understatement. And yes, we have home security, cameras and a Ring doorbell but we also have a very strong firewall. But somehow technology seems to have gotten out in front of us both. The Deus ex machina morphed into Diabolus ex machina so slowly that hardly anyone noticed.
I don’t know what evil spirit has inhabited our television but I suspect it will attempt to extort some form of payment before returning control of the remote device. 
Possibly even a quid pro quo: 
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century it seems prudent to point out - yet again - that 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction guide. Somehow you would think that “journalists” would be the last group on earth that would require that reminder but…
they seem to be the people taking the most notes.
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
“if everything crashes there’s going to be a lot of folks who go nuts”
I see that more and more. If VR gets as convenient as eyeglasses many people may lose their ability to socialize.
Even phone conversation is waning and giving way to texting.
I cannot remember the last time I heard someone say “I had the most fascinating conversation with...”. It sometimes seems like we are adopting the worst from Huxley and Orwell.
Not always and not all of us, Praise the Lord.
Remember when families and friends would gather and actually have conversations? That seems a thing of the past...
Our family gathered at my daughter’s home for Christmas Eve and most of the adults (older than 10) had a smart phone, in hand and staring at the screen...
Try conversation with the current crop of “adults”...Hard to impossible with the average 5-10 second attention spans these days...
You don't even have to buy them anymore.
I recently got had a coupon emailed to me from my insurance company for a free Amazon Echo.
Needless to say, I didn't take them up on it. I have enough surveillance devices around me already.
I am tech savvy to the point where I’m the go-guy for friends who have computer problems. I own a $20 TracPhone that gets charged 3 or 4 times a year. It stays in my van for emergencies. I do use my iPad every day. I’m 67 and I am a conversationalist and I do not apologize to anybody for it.
Grandma should kick every one of those bums in her living room out on the street after telling them that the only way they were ever going to get back in her home again would be to drop all their devices in a big box at the front door and keep them there until they leave.
Granny should then go on rant about MANNERS and how ashamed she was to have a family without any, maybe even dropping a few tears or some creative cussing for punctuation.
I am reminded of a story, attributed to Ronaldus Magnus that might apply to Granny...
An old man was hobbling down the street and a gaggle of youts heckled him as he passed.
“Yo, geezer. Don’t you wish you had a smartphone and all the other neat stuff we’ve got now-a-days?”
Geezer replied “Listen punk, who do you think invented all this crap ?”
Granny might well have one of the folks that made all this possible.
> Granny might well have one of the folks that made all this possible.
Granny might well have been one of the folks that made all this possible.
Damn Computers !
Animals Farm was the instruction manual; 1984 is what happens if you didn't learn from Animal Farm.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Tape, ice-pick, respectively.
...are unlikely to ever choose the hardship that comes with sustained civil unrest.
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Both, however, may choose them.
It’s hard for me to imagine sustained civil unrest when the poorest are the most likely to be obese and are the most entertained poor people ever. Not saying it’s impossible, just that it has never happened before anywhere. It’s a very new condition, so maybe one argument would be that there is a first time for everything.
Freegards
...hard for me to imagine sustained civil unrest ...
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Which is not the same as the statement that sustained civil unrest not only can occur, but can become endemic.
Looks to me like it is already happening in Iran, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Bolivia...et al.
Imagine Day Three of a sustained power interruption in an urban enclave in the technologically developed world (even venues without functioning infrastructure seem to have digital comms these days).
People have recovered slightly from becoming infotainment-deprived. Their attention span has lengthened a bit and they have increased their situational awareness (since they are no longer screen-bound).
Because they used to self-medicating with food, they are now anxious because it is no longer easily obtained.
They are agitated and hangry. They begin to coalesce. All their drugs of choice are no longer effortlessly available.
Opportunists offer what they want at costs that are out of reach and exorbitant.
Organizers skillfully connect their discomfort with the PTB.
Non-caloric drugs are ubiquitous.
Now, watch the cities burn.
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