Not very often. For example, do you remember the film “2001:
A space odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick?
Weren’t we by now supposed to have astronauts comfortably flying
around to far off planets, and computers so intelligent that they suffered nervous
breakdowns?
Well, this week I found one science-fiction
story which has proved remarkably accurate in its depiction of the future. “The murderer” was written by Ray Bradbury in
1953. That was sixty-three years
ago. I’d like to post a few extracts of
the story. See if anything about his
imaginary world rings (and beeps, and flashes, and rings again) true
about the world today.In the first extract, a prisoner meets the prison psychiatrist for the first time. He has been arrested for destroying gadgets such as tvs, telephones, radios, a robot vacuum cleaner and so on.
“I’m here to help you,” said the psychiatrist, frowning. Something was wrong with the room. He had hesitated the moment he entered. He glanced around.
The prisoner laughed. “If you’re wondering why it’s so quiet in here, I just kicked the radio to death.”
*
The psychiatrist is uncomfortable in a room
without gadgets and confused as to why anyone would want to destroy
technology. And why does the prisoner
talk so passionately about “killing” gadgets?
He explains how difficult it has become to avoid the constant noise and
interruption of technology and electronic communication...
Extract 2:
When it wasn’t the television or the radio or the phonograph it was motion pictures at the corner theatre; motion pictures projected, with commercials projected onto [clouds]... When it wasn’t [advertisements on clouds], it was music... in every restaurant; music and commercials on the buses I rode to work. When it wasn’t music, it was inter-office communications...
*
The prisoner goes on to explain how, with his wrist radio always attached, his boss could contact him all of the time...
Extract 3:
You can’t leave your car without checking
in: “Have stopped to visit gas-station men’s room.”...”What took you so long?”
“Sorry, Sir.”
*
The prisoner remembers the scene on a public bus. Nobody is paying attention to the people around them, but are focussed instead on using their personal communication devices. Most of their conversation is just pointless descriptions of what street they are now on...
Extract 4:
[On the bus] sat all the tired commuters
with their wrist radios, talking to their wives, saying, “Now I am at Forty-third,
now I am at Forty-fourth, here I am at Forty-ninth, turning at Sixty-first. One husband cursing, “Well get out of that
bar, damn it, and get home and get dinner started. I’m at Seventieth.” [And the bus radio playing music and
commercials.]*
The psychiatrist decides that the man must
be mad, and goes back to his world of constantly bleeping and flashing devices. The prisoner is equally sure that the world
must be mad and looks forward to enjoying the quiet of his prison cell.
That’s quite an impressive prediction of
how the world was set to go from a man writing in 1953! I don’t want to destroy all technology, of
course. I’m happy to have x-ray machines
and aeroplanes and computers. But when I
am sitting on a train and everyone is totally engrossed in their
smartphones, or when people playing Pokemon Go start ignoring the rules and
dangers of the real world because they are so engrossed in their virtual game
(as I wrote about in last week’s blog), then I feel sympathetic to “The
Murderer”. Perhaps some gadgets deserve
to be killed after all.
I’ll leave you with a final thought from
Ray Bradbury’s short story.
Extract 5:
They went too far. If a little music and keeping in touch was
charming, they figured a lot would be ten times as charming.
*
Vocabulary:
a killer gadget – slang: an amazing, or
amazingly cool piece of technology
an astronaut – a human who travels to space
a nervous breakdown – a collapse of mental
stability
to ring true – to sound accurate; to have
the sound or feel of truth
a psychiatrist – a doctor who treats mental
problems
to frown – a facial expression involving
the wrinkling of the skin of one’s forehead, usually showing displeasure
men’s room – male toilet
to be engrossed – to be absorbed; to be so
focussed on something that you don’t notice anything else
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