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boob tube

Well, I'm not sure it's evil, per se, except in so far as it is a victim of
corporate capitalism, which I'm sure is evil.  Harlan Ellison called it "the
glass teat" because he thought it was so addictive and brain-numbing that
regardless of what was on, we would end up just drooling vacantly, staring at
the pretty lights.  I wouldn't go that far, although I admit the possibility; I
don't think the technology is inherently evil, only that the lowest-common-
denominator, so-called-free-market demographic pressure leads to the victory of
the insipid, the shallow, and the flashy.  Consider that for thousands of
years, the great spiritual leaders have been saying we have to divest ourselves
from our stuff, think deeply and carefully, and build connections with others
and the world.  TV programming is driven by advertising that doesn't want you
to think, wants you to feel lost and disconnected so you'll buy their stuff in
a vain effort to find fulfillment, and spend more time staring at the screen
when you could be getting to know other human beings.  Which is what Fight
Club was all about... but I digress.

Still, I'm in a rather bizarre situation in that I've spent over $5000 over the
last three years building up a mid-range home theater system, but I have no
cable, or satellite, or even an antenna.  I just use it to watch pre-recorded
stuff.  So I haven't seen a commercial in a long, long time, except for product
placement.  :-)  My solution is to use the technology to foster community by
having friends over to watch and discuss movies.  Just staring at the screen
together doesn't necessarily help, but if you discuss it afterwards, you can
use the art to deepen your understanding of life and each other.  It's very
cool.

Back to work.  We just discovered a brand new nova!
-- 
Don Smith                    Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                          http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/
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