Googlezon is the best... DOUBLE TRUE

This is by now several years old but it's still pretty neat: http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/

This particular link has both versions of the EPIC flash animation; the original (and superior in most aesthetic ways), set in 2014, and the updated one set in 2015.

It's a testament to the telescoping of history that, in the year or so between these versions, enough changed that fundamental and completely ingrained aspects of our social/media landscape such as ipod and GPS weren't even mentioned in the first go-round.

Although this is obviously a distopian vision in many ways (note the name on the Googlezon ID card), several of my friends, upon first viewing the video, responded with some variation on "hell yeah." This was their vision of the future, what they wanted for the world... and, like any good distopian vision, there are many aspects that are exciting to contemplate. I think the ending of the second version was added to balance the presentation somewhat. Young people everywhere using technology to connect to each other and form digital communities around the world. Which is one of the things about the internet that has always been so exciting.

Incidentally, one of those techno-friends is also the best data miner I know. Also discussed in the Googlezon video, in a way that echos Hiro's job in Neal Stephenson's novel SnowCrash: People getting paid based on the number of hits to the information they dig up and make readily available for consumption.

I think the most compelling metaphor I take from the EPIC video is the idea that someone is always watching. This, of course, is a central concept to 1984, and it's becoming more and more appropriate with the Office of Homeland Security, the struggle between Google and the Justice Department for the records of our internet traffic, ad infinium. This has actually been true for several years... in the first class in this University of Washington certificate program I'm currently taking, someone in the class said something to the effect that every email you write can be read by any number of people at any time after you write it.

To me, however, this is just a reminder of something that has been true for all times and will continue to be true as long as humans are around to ponder their existence. One of my favorite books is The Way of Man by Martin Buber, which is a short description of Hasidism--a form of Jewish Mysticism--presented as several short essays deconstructing some old Jewish parables. The one that sticks out in this context is the first chapter of the book, "Heart-Searching." The core parable of this essay is from Genesys, in the Garden of Eden. After Adam has eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he tries to hide from God; God calls out, "Where art thou?," which of course has been fodder for skeptics ever since. How is it that an omniscient being could lose track of something? Buber explains:

"In so asking, God does not expect to learn something he does not know; what he wants is to produce an effect in man which can only be produced by just such a question, provided that it reaches man's heart--that man allows it to reach his heart."

If we may ignore for the present moment the obvious sexism of the language (that's for another blog entry), the metaphor that is present in 1984, the EPIC films, and our lives today becomes clear. We have always been, and always will be, watched. Someone is always watching us... and whether you want to project that watcher from out of the self and call it God, or just call it something like the conscious, the ego, etc., is immaterial, in my opinion. Buber again:

"Man cannot escape the eye of God, but in trying to hide from him, he is hiding from himself...This question is designed to awaken man and destroy his system of hideouts."