What if all human knowledge were made accessible to anyone
in the world through devices small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and distributed
throughout the globe to those of even modest means? “Indeed, the mind scarcely
dares to speculate as to what might be done with such an appliance.”
The answer? We’d use it to watch videos of cats.
In fact, this answer is so obvious that a leading
distributor of this technology has exploited the obviousness in its advertising. The
irony of a use so trivial for a tool so powerful is oft-noted.
What might not be so obvious, however, is the recurring
nature of this phenomenon. Remember the above-quoted sentence: “Indeed, the mind
scarcely dares to speculate as to what might be done with such an appliance?” That’s not a quote about smartphones. It’s from a news article published more than a
century ago about the then-burgeoning field of film technology.[1]
“So what?” you may protest, “New information technology in some form or
other has been ‘burgeoning’ for at least
one hundred years. What’s so special about
comparing how the smartphone fascinates us today with how the motion picture fascinated
us back then?”
The answer? We used it to watch videos of cats.
Some film historians argue that this very shot from 1903's "The Sick Kitten" is the
first true close-up. That’s right,
the close-up itself was invented to get better videos of cats.
So if you ever find yourself suffering from future shock
due to the increasingly alarming rate of technological change, you can always assuage
your despair by using those newfangled contraptions you’re so anxious about to
watch a cat video.
[1]. Books
and Authors: New Books, the New Magazines and Literary Notes, Worcester Daily Spy, May 27, 1894, at 5.
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