/News Story
No signal and the radio after
The Technofile ended on July 27th, and it's really weird not getting in front of a microphone every week and talking about tech. Since I joined full time at Rockstar Games over a year ago it's been a creative challenge every day. Everyone there is super cool and I'm glad I made this transition. I'll miss the Technofile, and I'll miss traveling for the Technofile. This time of year I'm usually putting together a plan for CeBit, the only tech conference really worth attending outside of the US. The Consumer Electronics Show was excellent, but like all American trade shows that start to get popular, they get so big they just implode. Comdex was a great show at one time. Siggraph is one I miss going to as well, mostly for the academic component. CeBit had a huge academic section where researchers can show you all the stuff they are working on. Most American trade shows celebrate the sale of technology rather than the technology itself, and hype becomes the push versus excitement over the future of the genre.
When I was in Germany earlier this year at CeBit, it was drizzling, as often happens in March in the area, and I thought about how this was my last show to cover for the Technofile. It was clear in my mind that i was going to shut the Technofile down soon, it was just a matter of when. We got on a train after covering the show for 3 days and headed east. Germany and Europe feel so new. There are trains that do 125 mph. Windmills are in farm fields. Technology feels like it's advanced but somehow people are living in history, walking on ancient streets, bicycling, drinking, smoking. Then the train passed over the magical divide into East Berlin. From there, and through our travels into Poland, everything went gray and hit a time warp. The train we switched to was easily 40 years old. The travel was slow. People hung out of buildings by the train tracks with hand signals on sticks and waved them at the engineer. There were no electronic signals of what was ahead.
And the unknown felt good.
There seems to be a loss of exploration these days that i couldn't put my finger on until that moment. Electronics give us such a safety net, one that tells us where we are via GPS and provides the ability to call as soon as we feel like things are out of the ordinary. Take the situation on New York commuter rail. The train stops for 5 minutes due to delay and every phone comes out. Some are surfing the web, looking for news on train trouble. Others are calling frantically looking for someone to commiserate with. There is a feeling that somehow you can take action on something you have no control over. Or that you need to tell someone.
On the train into Poland, my Blackberry crapped out. No signal. The train stopped in a plain but expansive and beautiful valley with fields in every direction. I had nobody to complain to electronically. I went to the bar car, lit a cigar, looked out the window at some deer nearby, and waited, finally alone with my thoughts, unencumbered by the future.
When I was in Germany earlier this year at CeBit, it was drizzling, as often happens in March in the area, and I thought about how this was my last show to cover for the Technofile. It was clear in my mind that i was going to shut the Technofile down soon, it was just a matter of when. We got on a train after covering the show for 3 days and headed east. Germany and Europe feel so new. There are trains that do 125 mph. Windmills are in farm fields. Technology feels like it's advanced but somehow people are living in history, walking on ancient streets, bicycling, drinking, smoking. Then the train passed over the magical divide into East Berlin. From there, and through our travels into Poland, everything went gray and hit a time warp. The train we switched to was easily 40 years old. The travel was slow. People hung out of buildings by the train tracks with hand signals on sticks and waved them at the engineer. There were no electronic signals of what was ahead.
And the unknown felt good.
There seems to be a loss of exploration these days that i couldn't put my finger on until that moment. Electronics give us such a safety net, one that tells us where we are via GPS and provides the ability to call as soon as we feel like things are out of the ordinary. Take the situation on New York commuter rail. The train stops for 5 minutes due to delay and every phone comes out. Some are surfing the web, looking for news on train trouble. Others are calling frantically looking for someone to commiserate with. There is a feeling that somehow you can take action on something you have no control over. Or that you need to tell someone.
On the train into Poland, my Blackberry crapped out. No signal. The train stopped in a plain but expansive and beautiful valley with fields in every direction. I had nobody to complain to electronically. I went to the bar car, lit a cigar, looked out the window at some deer nearby, and waited, finally alone with my thoughts, unencumbered by the future.
posted by lazlow at 9:55 PM on Tuesday, August 14, 2007
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