That's amazing you can drive through different neighborhoods and the i-phone will show you which houses are for sale and how much they are asking. I wonder if there is another gadget that tells how many people live there, and their names, and what they do, and give photos of them, and stuff like that. It's sounds like John is a fully functioning virus in Apple's scheme of world domination. Whether I am headed that direction remains to be seen. I like your idea of using the i-pad to call up dead relatives. I looked to see if there are any software applications under the title of "dead relatives," and was surprised to see there is not, but they have just about everything else. Of course, there are many software applications related to genealogy, and ghosts (there's one called Ghost-o-meter that you can use in your house or anywhere else, and it has a meter that detects ghosts and other spiritual phenomena... and also ones called Paranormal Scanner and Ghost Detector) and graveyard and haunted site travel apps (Haunted California, Wicked Walks New Orleans, etc). I think there is a business possibility still waiting there, with the dead relatives idea. I imagine some sort of app where you would enter the name of the dead relative you want to contact, and specific questions, and the application would answer them, like a very sophisticated version of that old plastic "Magic 8" ball. On the other hand, a little more research now shows me that there is are Ouija Board apps, and various spiritualism and fortune teller apps, so maybe it's already covered.
I was thinking today what objects could be now considered obsolete, if a person wanted to replace as much stuff as possible with his i-tools, which is probably the direction we're heading. I thought of radios, TV's, normal phones, books, maps, paper photographs and maps and charts, and cameras, newspapers, magazines, newspapers, and certain tools like the compass and calculator, and no doubt a whole lot of other stuff. On the other hand, a lot of basic material objects are still needed... furniture, clothes, cooking and eating utensils, personal care products, and such.
I had read an article in the New York Times recently about "silly" digital games ... games that are mindless and plotless, where you're just moving along from one level to the next, trying to score as many points as possible. The article was titled "The Hyperaddictive, Time-Sucking, Relationship-Busting, Mind-Crushing Power and Allure of Silly Digital Games." The author was talking about how millions of people do these games A LOT, and how many billions of hours are spent on them. It's not like he was totally dissing them; he has experimented with many of these games himself. He said the one game he got totally addicted to for awhile is called Drop7. Out of curiosity I downloaded it (free) on the i-pad, and played it. I can see how a person could get addicted to it, though I'm not there yet because I haven't played it enough to really get the hang of it. Circles with numbers keep appearing steadily, and you're dropping them into various columns, and when you do it well, there are all sorts of noises and explosions. A robotic sound track plays constantly in the background. You feel purposeful, focused and energized while you're doing the game, like you are accomplishing important things, and that somehow you're making real progress in life, and you don't want anything to interfere with it....
Interesting that you have noticed the east coast media purveyors don't pay much attention to California. So much of the news comes out of New York, and New York is actually a very ingrown, self-absorbed place that pretty much considers itself as the center of the universe, and pities anyone who lives anywhere else. Many people who were raised in New York could not imagine living anywhere else. There was a famous New Yorker cartoon by Saul Steinberg that pretty much said it all. I attached it, hopefully.
--edward
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