You know you are seriously deprived when the most vivid dream you've had in weeks is about a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and a milkshake with fresh whipped cream. I was never one to dream about food before coming to prison, but now they tease me a few times each month. They really are even worse than a nightmare. Most people can just wake up and say, "That sounds good. I'll get one for lunch," but not me. Instead I get to look forward to low quality hot dogs and vegetable chili (believe me it is way worse than it sounds). It's the tiny freedoms like not to be able to satisfy a craving that really gets to you far more than being confined to a square mile of property. I've made it four years so far, which doesn't seem like all that long in scope, but I dare you to try sleeping on your kitchen table with only a thin camp roll, two sheets, two fleece blankets and no pillow for a month and tell me how fast time goes. (Actually, now that I think about it a normal kitchen table is wider than what our bunks are).
The idea of returning to the world of choices is a little intimidating to me now, I can't imagine what it will feel like in 9 more years. One of the few TV programs I watch is the series Numbers. At one point a main character spends six months aboard the space station. When he returns he is overwhelmed by how noisy and cluttered the world really is and ends up living in a monastery until he can re-acclimate. I TOTALLY GET IT!!
I came in here just as things like Twitter were taking off. Social media was a quirky thing young people were doing. But now...well it's scary to watch. Privacy as I knew it is vanishing and as someone with a few skeletons in his closet that terrifies me more than any horror novel. It's easy to say that I just won't participate in it, but even abstaining seems to leave a mark of stigma. I was a vocal supporter of new media, embracing the internet and its amazing uses in science, teaching and other academic and social areas. But now I have to wonder, have we gone too far?
Books, magazines and photographs are all being replaced by digital equivalents leaving me to wonder what happens to the people who can't afford the devices to read them. Is the next step going to be the development of two classes, those who can afford to stay educated and those left ignorant due to insufficient funds? Why should information be contained exclusively in a medium that is not accessible to everyone? As someone not allowed media readers, I really sympathize with the kid from a poor family who wants to read the newest issue of Shonen Jump (a monthly Manga magazine) who has the ability to save the $5 for the media, but can't possibly afford the $200 player to read it on! And since this is one of now many magazines that do not offer any printed copies, he's out of luck. He can't even hope to stumble across it at a yard sale because it doesn't exist in the real world! For me it's the same deal. I want to read older novels by my favorite authors, but I am unable to because they are only available electronically. It's frustrating in ways I never dreamed possible.
All of this brings to mind the Legends of Atlantis. For those who aren't up on their mythology, Atlantis was supposedly an advanced culture/city-state/people that existed long before recorded history. There has never been any physical proof of its existence other than in the writings of some famous Ancient Greeks. I can't help but wonder if we aren't following in their footsteps. Ridiculous? Think about it like this. An advanced civilization would likely live in harmony with their environment, as the Atlanteans were supposed to be more technological than we are even now we can assume they succeeded where we failed.
One of the big tenets of environmentalism is to leave only footsteps behind. What if they succeeded in building everything from bio-degradable materials? 10,000 years is plenty of time for the earth to reclaim a society that was meant to leave nothing behind. And if all of their knowledge was digital...see where I'm going with this? There'd be nothing remaining to prove their existence...except the vague mention in the oral history of mankind, and then only if someone survived.
I know this sounds loony and I don't pretend this is anything that could be proven, but it is the way my mind works. I just truly believe the human races conversion to a completely digital society is a mistake and something everyone should think about. Getting rid of tangible media just feels like we are taking another step towards a society much like the one beautifully portrayed in the film Wall-E. More and more we are living through a screen -- both figuratively and literally --and I think someone needs to say something before it is too late.
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