Paradise Preoccupied

I’ve been thinking about the new invention I wrote about yesterday, the wearable version of emoticons that will allow moviegoers to experience the physical manifestations of what’s happening on screen, and although the idea of sitting through a steamy flick while Brad Pitt stokes a fire that kindles in a special pair of emotipants does sound like a kick in the knickers, I have thoughts.

Spending as much time online as I do, I am often put in mind of Aldous Huxley’s fears of the future world … that at some point there would so much information that humanity would drown in a sea of irrelevance.

Social networks like facebook could easily be renamed “Sea of Irrelevance”, and although the value of ease of access between loved ones, international communication and “friend” morphing from noun to verb … and I do like the active application of the word … the shift from the search for intelligent life to seeking a personality to call one’s own feels like a scaling back of grand goals and the sinking of a noble vessel.

“Brave New World” was Huxley’s 1931 version of the time we now approach rapidly, and contemplating his foresight in an interesting use of time.

I would love to see some recent stats on time spent in the company of a good book these days, and how far, after all, is cyber sex, the pastime of more people than I choose to contemplate often, from the soma vacation orgies of The World State?

With “company” available instantly, are we, like the citizens of Huxley’s version, being conditioned to eschew alone time?

There’s no doubt that his emphasis on consuming consumerism is a fait accompli … a reality that is doing some butt-biting these days.

Don’t get me wrong … I’m not saying that I wouldn’t give the Hot Pants a spin from time to time, but I would think twice before wearing them to bed every night, no matter the collection of movies on the receiving end of my remote.