The Future is Already Here

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

—William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003

Are you living in the past? If you don't have broadband internet, a mobile phone, a digital video recorder and a digital tv then you're still in the 1990's or earlier. Do you still use a video recorder and a CD player and listen to 94.5fm? Perhaps you're in the 80's.  You may think that you're normal, but in reality you're a historical anachronism. In another generation, your primitive existence will be regarded as outdated and as quaint as we think of the 1930s today.

Elderly relatives might still be in bubbles from even earlier times, perhaps the 1960s or 1970s. They have a fixed line telephone, patterned wallpaper and "modern" furniture from Mad Men, and their cuisine consists of the traditional meat and veg; pasta other than spag bol is weird foreign food that is occasionally sampled at restaurants, and Asian fusion is a complete mystery; ATM's are dangerous futuristic machines that can't be trusted that surely won't catch on.

If you're related to someone who hasn't kept up with the modern world, I recommend taking advantage of Christmas and providing them with a taste of 2010 -  donate an old mobile phone or a $10 MP3 player loaded up with Lady Gaga and Daft Punk, and see their face light up with delight.