The email from my dad that read: “At noon there appeared at my door a brilliant light accompanied by choirs of angels and cherubim,” was no surprise.
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
Thanks to the media’s megafication of Apple’s already megafied iPad buzz, Dad’s experience was not a unique one.
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
Dad is all about reading newspapers and is thrilled to have the process streamlined. Given the volume of newspaper articles he goes through every day, the iPad makes sense for him. Were the crowds camping in front of the Apple Stores all night also trying to get their newspaper reading process streamlined?
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
When I bought my iBook G4, I was given choice of two screen sizes. After some deliberation and phone calls to friends, I decided to pay the few extra hundred bucks for the larger screen. Although I did not regret it, its not like I’d have know any differently had I gotten the small screen instead since I would have adapted to it.
Now, imagine if Apple had released the large screen iBook G4 two years after releasing the small screen iBook G4. Sprinkle in some adjustments to make the system run more smoothly and there would be no question but to get the larger version. People would, in fact, camp in front of an Applestore all night in order replace their smaller screen versions with the larger screen iBook G4s.
Back in the 90s, when I was living and studying in Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Professor Richard Rogers introduced me to the Technological Sublime.
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
Whereas the natural sublime was the awestruck state brought about through a direct encounter with an extraordinary encounter with a natural landscape –Niagra Falls, Big Sur, Bryce Canyon, Devil’s Tower, Old Faithful, you get the jist– the Technological Sublime described heightened state brought about through an encounter with technology. In the mid 19th century, the technological sublime characterized the first encounters with railroads, steam engines and telegraphs.
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
Regardless of whether or not you actually need the iPad, I’m guessing your pulse will report an increase when you hold it in your hand and tap its smooth monolithic surface.
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| From Susannaspeier.com |
Unlike the Natural Sublime, the Technological Sublime has an expiration date. Soon as the next version is out, the previous version is defunct. In some cases vintage value can add value again, years after. My original 1984 Macintosh is an example of this. Ordinarily, however, that’s not the case. Nobody asks to look at my iBookG4 now, however because Apple minions are passionate transients who know how to make the most of a product launch.
Prof Rogers may have been making an ironic point. When we deal with 19th Century industrial America, we are also dealing with the ‘innocence’ of American optimism, some of which we still see pushing our economics and foreign policy.
We should note that sublimity is the sense of ‘awe’, of ‘fright’, of what Biblicists, no doubt even today, would equate with the power and anger of ‘Jehovah’. Sublimity dwarfs us. And since ‘we’ are creating a world of electronics (and, if you do insist, ‘social media’) with which to connect ourselves to one another, the sublimity, the power, the fright, is that of Dr. Frankenstein.
We thrill, we shudder, we grab for our partner. Then, like Adam and Eve — and Dr. F himself — feel the shame. Whatever innocence motivated the outreach.
Am I overelaborating? Probably. After all, I am using these modalities, at least the more reasonable parts of them. The question to ask is this one: Why be cheerful about breakneck speed? Aside from feeling the wind in one’s hair, going fast entails a whole lot of risk.
And ‘thinking fast’ is paradoxical. If you think, it must be slowly. Whatever’s fast isn’t thinking.
I think the Technological Sublime’s expiration date is more of a range — we can conservatively estimate this range as beginning about 15 minutes after one purchases the device/OS/whatever and extending all the way up to, but not beyond, the point at which the next version becomes available.
Such a range easily covers the two extremes of impulse shoppers:
# The buzzkill that one experiences after finally getting something they’ve lusted after for so long (I think there is a term for this, but I cannot recall it at the moment)
# The fear of obsolescence (or, rather, the fear of owning obsolete tech).
I’m sure impulse buyers have been around for a long time, but I cannot imagine they were seen in numbers like we’ve had in the last few decades. Perhaps the internet has markedly increased the number impulse buyers (if not simply the occurrences of impulse purchase). Is there any kind of research that has been done on this?
By the way, the one and only time I’ve purchased the alpha version of any product was the release of the iPod Nano 3rd Generation. And the only reason I did is because my iPod 3G (which I had purchased used) died the very same week that the Nano 3G arrived.
Thanks, TrulyFool. For the spiritual take. Brian, thanks for the pragmatic one. Both perspectives inspire and inform — for different reasons. Went to the Apple Store today to discover, for myself, what iPad experience was like. The screen itself is fantastic. Couldn’t be a better tool for, say, a Grandma to be able to carry around and show off her grandkids. Same is true, I think for sculptors, filmmakers, painters, designers, decorators. It’d be a fantastic way to show off an album or portfolio. Same goes for newspaper junkies, like my dad. He loves the way those pages turn. How can you beat that? When you get right down to it, the thing’s still just a big, huge ipad, tho. And, honestly, the fact they’ve still got so many in stock is obviously a testament to the fact that it is either (a) too expensive or (b) impractical or (c) incompatible with the current economy. Not sure which of those applies. It’s an interesting phenom, tho, regardless.