Eyes everywhere

Soon enough every where will be under the all seeing eye and what happens then? When men in suits have video of everyone at all times?


We enter the new age soon enough, fellow humans.

Shields at 33%

There's also small boulders in the exploding consoles.

A New Kind of Love

These are the men of the future. Consider the men of the past. Think of a boy born in 1900, who grew up into a world of radio then TV. Think of how different he'd be than this young man above, born in the Internet. All the rules are changing.

Without foundation in this new world, we drift, assuming new personas, at least for a while. And some more passionately than others.

The Internet has opened a Pandora's Box, and it won't be easily shut. It could be shut though - a good sized solar flare would fry modern technology, and we'd revert to the year 1900 quickly enough, for a decade or more. But the Internet would return, inevitably.

My advice for this new world? Be flexible of mind and body.

The Making of You (No Escape)

The urge to share, to record, to transmit your meaning to others is a powerful part of being human - we're social animals to the extreme, and technology has allowed us to be social in ways never seen before.

Look at this high tech stuff! All replaced of course in the glorious 21st century by

The smart phone, which is truly a wonder. And a horror, for so many reasons - the Selfie high among them.

So don't worry about privacy anymore - not only will the streets and skies and oceans be filled with cameras, but we'll be recording ourselves and others all the time, uploading it onto a cyberspace that will always be fully monitored by governments and corporations.

You have nothing to fear, of course, if you have nothing to hide. Unlike this poor cat.

No Escape

In the future, every camera will see at least one other camera.

Not even the ocean will be safe, thanks to 1st Lt. Flipper and friends.

Technological Terror

Don't forget! Disney bought Star Wars, and thus there is soon to be a new movie. And why not? Star Wars is still hugely popular, and any new film guaranteed to print money. But will it be good?

Being a nerd from the Internet, I don't think it will be. That it can be. Because the first 6 movies are really the story of a Sith Lord named Sidious, or you might know him as The Emperor. While the Skywalker family is the focus of the movies, it is the man also known as Palpatine that is the driving force behind all the movies, and everything happens because of him. Like Sauron, who is "The Lord of The Rings", all action in the story of Star Wars is in response to something Palpatine does, or has caused to happen. But now, technically, he's dead, and the new movie cannot (or should not!) feature him.

And thus, the odds of VII being a good Star Wars movie is small, since the main agent of the movies is gone. Bring back Luke, and Leia, and Han, and it doesn't really matter. There's no villain Disney can come up with better than Darth Sidious.

One of the best villains in fiction. Why? Lots of reasons, but not least of which he does many of his evil deeds posing as a respectable Senator,

 and then later Supreme Chancellor.

He's only mentioned in A New Hope. He appears as a hologram, once, in The Empire Strikes Back. He's a key piece of the conclusion in Return of the Jedi. He's the star of the Prequels. Let's take a moment to appreciate this aspect of the Prequels, even if you don't like them overall. Good villains are a treasure of mythology.

Remember! Vader - the Chosen One - is only a lackey to Darth Sidious. So, three cheers for the true Dark Lord of The Sith! Let us lament his fictional passing.

Snow White Rebootier

Given that everything gets rebooted these days, and then perhaps even rebooted again, and of course with every reboot things get darker, grittier, edgier, cuz, society, man.

So it's high time Snow White gets the modern reboot story - it's been a year or so - as a punk militant vegan eco-terrorist who also just happens to be heir to the throne, only if she can overthrow the ruling junta, led by Glenn Close.

But also too, kids, that's just a movie. In real life, grenades are NOT the answer. Say no if anyone ever offers you one, or suggests you go pick some up at the grenade store. Bad news.

Dang it! My PSA came too late.

The Least Revolutionary Revolutionaries

So when did America stop being Revolutionary? Washington crushing the Whiskey Rebellion? War of 1812 (note: Needs better name - something like "Revolutionary War 2: Red Glare")? Our first of the hundreds of invasions of the Caribbean and Central America?

Whenever, it's pretty clear we long ago stopped being a Revolutionary power and instead became an Imperial one. So, yeah, Revolutionaries suck! Says America, now. But not the whole world, yet. And not all Americans. So remember:

Well, with all this space age tech, they might! But the point still stands: Fight the power!

Armored up

One of the more pernicious impacts of the Drug War is the militarization of police forces across the US, and now the world. Andy and Barney are gone, replace by an armored goon with a tazer and mace, to start. More Army than Local Constable.

 Dorner hunt.

Most people did not get shot during the manhunt, thankfully.

But don't worry! Our native, freedom loving militias are keeping pace!

Keep abreast of the latest in mass killing tools, techniques, and strategies! For freedom, of course.

The Future and The Past

Here it is! Every liberal gun grabber's nightmare: The printed gun. Open source, anyone can do it. That is, as long as you have access to a 3D printer and don't mind taking the risk that the first shot will blow up in your face. But those are just kinks, which will be worked out of the system. In short order, we'll all be able to print armories of guns, every day. Then, we shall truly know freedom, as taught to us from the past:

It was guns that allowed Washington to defeat the zombie British and found America!

It was a Mecha suit, with lots of guns, that allowed FDR to defeat the Axis and conquer the world!

And even so, it was guns that got Slick Willie a hummer.

So, as you can see, guns are the cause of all greatness, freedom, and awesomeness. Except when Obama holds one.

Thankfully, Dutch and Mac are there to cover for the gun grabber in chief.

Tomorrow's Women

A logical next step - some hands free computing device. Glasses are a sensible design since you need to be able to see it. Maybe something on the wrist could work too, Dick Tracy style. Michelle Bachman's on the bleeding edge, however, and that should give us all pause.

Future technology will be far more powerful. Too powerful? Can we trust people with technology that can cause mayhem with the push of a button? Of course we can't! But that won't stop us. Push it!

Antarctica party scene - a new thing for the super rich and the uber rich. Soon enough the ice will melt back far enough to open up resorts and what not. Yay, capitalism! The button has been pushed, our machines are melting the ice, killing all the creatures, ripping down all the forests, digging up all the earth. We're the Destroyers, woman!

But also of course the future, and all life. Yay, life! And boo, testicular cancer!

Ever Smaller

Check out 80's guy with his rad collection of electronics. Believe me cuz I was there, and all that stuff was rad, back in the day. Yo! But all of that and far more (the Internet) can now be found on a pretty little thin slab of black glass.

Like everyone here has, except that dude. The world in our palms, like some Star Trekkian perversion.

F that S says Queen Nadia, beatbox of the desert. Gonna kick it old school. Cut this rug!

DL's down wit it.

iClothes

So, I guess this was a thing?

Ah, the 1980's. In retrospect, not that far removed from the late 60's/early 70's, thus, the weird fashions. Hippie sensibility fused with Mall culture.

Who the hell would wear computer clothes in the 80's? No one, I assume, except these models and a few fat proto-nerds. I'd rock a "Wang" T-Shirt, though, I suppose.

Be pretty Hipster to wear some of these Apple clothes today, walking into an Apple store, rocking the Genius Bar.

For want of charisma

Big Brother is but a name for a charismatic enough leader, with enough power, who shapes the State to his will.  With today's insane Republican party, a charismatic leader could do pretty much anything if given the power to do so. But I don't think there's a charismatic enough GOP leader alive today.

Oh for the days of St. Ronaldus Magnus Reaganus! The greatest bestest leader America's ever had - it's true. Ask a Republican. But thankfully, today's Republican party has eaten its own product (Propaganda) for too long, and is now batshit stupid insane. I look upon the GOP horizon and see nothing but crackpots and hypocritical assholes. Old people gone completely bitter and deluded by the grifters and liars of the GOP.

Reagan has become unto a God to these Teabaggin' morans. For real - it's weird and creepy. Fun fact you could tell them and they'd never believe it: Reagan signed 11 tax increases during his two terms.

Cuz facts don't matter anymore to the so called "Conservative" party. They are 100% in with pure Ideology, whatever it is that given day in opposition to Liberals - because that's the gist of it: Whatever you're for, they're against.

If they get full power of the Government again anytime soon, we're in big trouble. If FSM be praised we can have a Democratic Administration and Congress from 2014 - 2024, we could do some serious work of undoing the damage they've done to this country and the world over the past 35 years.

It's up to us to decide - literally, the weight of the world is on our shoulders, upon our choices.

The All Seeing Eye

You might tag and smash a few, but the effort is ultimately futile. The cameras are only going to proliferate, in dramatic fashion. Soon enough there will be public cameras so small and cheap they'll be everywhere. The computer programs able to read the happenings on all the cameras will come along, and there will no escape.

So, until then, enjoy some British graffiti:

The cameras will not only be the Government's but also too the stores and not just the businesses but homes - right now, as you read, you can pay to have a security company install cameras in your house that they are, indeed, able to monitor 24/7. If you call them in an emergency, ostensibly, for now. Later? Or when needed? Always on.

For the children, of course - don't you want to keep your kids safe from murdering Eurasians? Then years go by, technology gets cheaper and better, and whammo! Total surveillance state.

Read 1984. Don't vote RANDPAUL.

Or any Republican, if you value your freedom - literally.

Batfreud

All the heroes were involved in the war effort (WW2 only - the other wars, not so much), but as a nerd, I'd like to raise a quibble: If you've got Superman, Batman, and Robin on your side, instead of having them raise and harvest Victory Gardens you instead used them to, oh, I don't know. Kill Hitler? But alas! There are no real heroes. Just drawings, or words, or characters on a screen.

From the original Batman serial film series - 1949, yo! Batman and Robin. The baggy leotards are intimidating, yes? But still, 1949! These 15 short stories ran before the featured movie of the day.

It's interesting to note through art the changing of society's standards. All the tough guys from the early days of movies and tv look like [arnold]little girly men[/arnold]. No definition! Do they even lift?

When you're "Adam West" smooth, maybe you don't need to be jacked.

Your car needs to be, however. Gee whiz tools define the character.

And now consider the Batman mythos as underlined here - created in 1939, WW2 propaganda campaigns, and already with a film series in 1949. A popular TV series in the 60's. Also a wacky movie. Movies in the 80's - 10's. And so many, many comics. A myth is born before our eyes, and enters the Jungian collective - we all "get it", right? Rich playboy with tragic background fights evil using cool toys? It's an expression of our desire for fairness in a closed, controlled system that is not fair, in which we are mostly powerless. A modern hero, for modern times.

Batman also might be a symbol for revenge, but I leave that for you to judge, and also what it says about humanity if true.