“It’s fascinating to think that people are spending enormous blocks of time, even without working, in front of these light boxes, tapping on plastic things. They get up after eight hours of intensive work and nothing has moved and nothing has changed but I could just spill some tea on this table and the stain would still be here. I don’t think there’s ever been a point in history where you could spend eight hours doing something and not a speck of dust gets moved. When you cook for eight hours you’ve got a lot of food, if you’ve been sweeping the floor is clean, if you are building something it gets built. Even if you are writing on paper you have paper that’s now been written on. There’s something fascinating about this idea that everything you do it doesn’t exist, it just exists in this temporal form. The information doesn’t exist. I mean, obviously I know that you are here because you wrote to me on the computer and I wrote back so there was a net effect and now we’re here. I’m not saying it’s a bad technology, I just think it’s an interesting idea. What will it do to people mentally? What will happen to our society if they feel like they can’t get anything done? I don’t know."
Friday, December 26, 2008
IAN MACKAYE ON... COMPUTERS
“It’s fascinating to think that people are spending enormous blocks of time, even without working, in front of these light boxes, tapping on plastic things. They get up after eight hours of intensive work and nothing has moved and nothing has changed but I could just spill some tea on this table and the stain would still be here. I don’t think there’s ever been a point in history where you could spend eight hours doing something and not a speck of dust gets moved. When you cook for eight hours you’ve got a lot of food, if you’ve been sweeping the floor is clean, if you are building something it gets built. Even if you are writing on paper you have paper that’s now been written on. There’s something fascinating about this idea that everything you do it doesn’t exist, it just exists in this temporal form. The information doesn’t exist. I mean, obviously I know that you are here because you wrote to me on the computer and I wrote back so there was a net effect and now we’re here. I’m not saying it’s a bad technology, I just think it’s an interesting idea. What will it do to people mentally? What will happen to our society if they feel like they can’t get anything done? I don’t know."
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3 comments:
His quote is pretty damn insightful. But conversely I think there's something to be said for the amount of brain cells that are moved through time in front of the computer. The quest for knowledge that can be performed on this "light box" is unmatched. Never before in the history of man could someone have access to so much information at once.
I agree with you completely. I think the "old skool" DIYers are almost at a disadvantage in this day an age. Competition for attention has gotten outrageous.
Though I know this is probably a lame comparison compared to Ian's accomplishments, but I remember when Nathanael and I first used "photoshop" in high school. We were like the only people in our world that could wrap our minds around such technology (and we were lucky our high school had the access). Then we made videos splicing together VHS... now any idiot with a computer can make movies and albums and graphic art. Sure, some are obviously more talented than others (Note: Nathanael R.), but the playing field's been leveled.
Despite my lack of passion for Ian McKaye, I do agree with him, but there's some thing to be said for the architecture of the internet.
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