~a column by Colleen O’Brien
The last time I opened my email, which was just a minute ago, I found I also had opened something called a “hangout.” I could see and hear my friend in Italy, but, alas, she could not see or hear me.
I checked it out and signed up for “hangout,” thinking I was astute and verging on brilliant to have clicked on the correct icon to get me that far. I downloaded “hangout” and thought I was in business. But, I have neither a camera nor a mic hooked up to my computer (I think that’s what it’s telling me) because my friend still could see only my email-type notes, not my eager smile and happy lips singing “Buon giorno!”
Electronics and I are not friends. We live in different galaxies and speak different languages. Now and then I get the message, but it’s not on a regular basis nor is the message always clear. I ponder imponderables (like “hangout” for one; I was on it [in it?] once a minute ago but how do I get back to it to see and hear my friend again?). The worst thing about computers is that I fear they are much smarter than I will ever be.
My grandson left on Saturday; too bad. He could have fixed me up in a heartbeat. To him, computers and smart phones are bred in the bone. To me, anything beyond typing the message is either impossible to figure out or dumb luck when I happen on it.
I’m not proud of this. I’ve taken a couple of computer classes and listened to a lot of computer talk among friends and family. I often read the computer column in the paper. It’s a little like reading recipes I’ll never buy the ingredients for.
Because I am only one rung up from computer illiterate, what I think is this new thing called “hangout” may have been around for a long time. Now there’s a new feller on the scene:
We are getting close to selling a concept called Virtual Reality for a reasonable price. As I read this newsflash, I wonder if I’ll simply continue to get farther behind or if it will be so compelling to me I’ll make myself figure it out. VR (as they call it) is virtually real in some places (Avatar, the movie, for one), and is already in a gadget store near you. The VR gadget, from what I can tell, is a set of cumbersome-looking goggles that can give me Wonder Woman powers (I don’t care about the strength; I just want the beauty) or take me back to the future. The technology and the apparati have been around for decades, but only recently has it been seen tidily stacked on shelves for the consumer (Samsung’s is only $200). It will first be used for games and the “adult film industry” (porn). And within seconds, it will be sports. If you think football fans are glued to the set now, just wait: they’ll be able to catch the football, then watch NASCAR from the pit and then sit on the bench with K the coach at an NBA game.
One ad says that programs can be written for a VR device that would allow men to see the world from a female point of view. And although the ad doesn’t mention it, I presume vice versa. Sounds like a good idea to me, but we now know more than we want to about the unforeseen consequences of many inventions and breakthroughs of the19th, 20th and 21st centuries, so I’ll hold judgment.
The historical society in the California town of Mill Valley is working with an internet entrepreneur to build a virtual representation of 1915 Mill Valley, with Model Ts and the occasional horse and buggy and real trains chugging through town. Does this mean we could do this with Jefferson and slack off on the work of revitalizing our town to its historical integrity. If I could don a set of goggles and stroll around the square and see it like it was . . .?
I’d never want to take them off.
