"Are you here to laugh or to learn?"
Growing up, many of us heard this question from a teacher, ruining a perfectly fine goof-off session in the back of the classroom. Maybe you heard it multiple times. From multiple teachers. All trying to get you to understand something patently non-understandable. Like photosynthesis or Shakespearian dialogue.
It was an easy enough question to get right, provided you were willing to lie. Now, lying is by no means an insurmountable obstacle for a kid:
"Did you break your sister's Shaun Cassidy album?" -- No.
"Are you cleaning your room/doing your homework/brushing your teeth? -- Yes/Yes/ Yef (1)
"Who left the TV remote in the bathroom? And why?" -- Don't know.(2)
Still, at times telling the truth just feels right. Necessary, even. So, despite knowing the consequences of sitting at your desk for an hour after school while Mrs. Hippleberger stares at you and shakes her head, you say, "laugh."
Because we like to laugh, often at things we don't understand.
And we do not understand technology. We never will. The last bit of technology fully understood by humans were the digital clock radios of the early 1970s. After that, technology essentially became magic, each advancement surprising its "inventors" as much as anyone. Trying to truly grasp what is going on is a fool's game.
Our only choice is to make fun of it.
The stories in this book play along with the charade of knowledge, to a point. You will be presented with an actual, factual news item from the world of tech.
But don't worry; any sensation of "learning" will prove fleeting, chased away by the ridiculous "analysis" that follows.
We're here to laugh.
(1) A finger in your mouth helps sell it.
(2) If you got control of the remote, you were king of the living room, and you did not relinquish your reign easily.
Growing up, many of us heard this question from a teacher, ruining a perfectly fine goof-off session in the back of the classroom. Maybe you heard it multiple times. From multiple teachers. All trying to get you to understand something patently non-understandable. Like photosynthesis or Shakespearian dialogue.
It was an easy enough question to get right, provided you were willing to lie. Now, lying is by no means an insurmountable obstacle for a kid:
"Did you break your sister's Shaun Cassidy album?" -- No.
"Are you cleaning your room/doing your homework/brushing your teeth? -- Yes/Yes/ Yef (1)
"Who left the TV remote in the bathroom? And why?" -- Don't know.(2)
Still, at times telling the truth just feels right. Necessary, even. So, despite knowing the consequences of sitting at your desk for an hour after school while Mrs. Hippleberger stares at you and shakes her head, you say, "laugh."
Because we like to laugh, often at things we don't understand.
And we do not understand technology. We never will. The last bit of technology fully understood by humans were the digital clock radios of the early 1970s. After that, technology essentially became magic, each advancement surprising its "inventors" as much as anyone. Trying to truly grasp what is going on is a fool's game.
Our only choice is to make fun of it.
The stories in this book play along with the charade of knowledge, to a point. You will be presented with an actual, factual news item from the world of tech.
But don't worry; any sensation of "learning" will prove fleeting, chased away by the ridiculous "analysis" that follows.
We're here to laugh.
(1) A finger in your mouth helps sell it.
(2) If you got control of the remote, you were king of the living room, and you did not relinquish your reign easily.
