Ray is not against technology, he is just all for seeing it used right! Without technology, how could we ever explore the universe and find new planets on which to live when this one gives out?

YES!
There is some 'Golden Apples' left in the basket.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040908031309990001

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 09-10-2004).]

The comment of the 14 yr. old in this article conjures up thoughts of the son in Rocket Man or the main character in Walking on Air or the kids in Veldt (taking their rocket shuttles too far for the liking of their parents). http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2004-09-28-ansari_x.htm?POE=TECISVA

Look...

Technology is good and all that...but how many people here have read '451'?

If you really want to see a book about an anti-book future (and I'm sure Ray Bradbury would agree with me) read 'Last Book in the Universe' and tell me what you think.

--scaryneighbor

By the way, Nard...
Does technology seem to hate you or somethin'?

scaryneighbor,

I've read "451" and "Last Book in the Universe" and I don't think that the future is looking that bad. Have some hope, you freakin' pessimist!

It's not your place to talk junk about other people, scaryneighbor.

You got the wrong website, pal.

I'm simply stating that technology can have it's affect on people, soccer. Not all people are techno-geeks...except me. Look, all I was doing was trying to have a little joke with someone who has no sense of technology!

--scaryneighbor

An now the Mechanical Hound can really run through the neighborhoods at night scanning and sniffing and searching and logging in even more facts.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/10/barcodes.species.reut/index.html

This "coding" can be applied (or already is) to the purchase of clothing, food, vehicles, and, of course, books! It only takes a microscopic wafer of info to supply the significant who, when, where, and how much! The Hound and Spiders (of Minority Report) are at the door trick or treating!

Mr. B had it just right back in 1953.

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 02-11-2005).]

They can just keep their old barcodes out of my flower gardens!! Some place has got to be safe from Big Brother!

What technology are you talking about ?

Well, if this is the case, cross off my name from the ISS Visitors' List: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/06/space.station.mcarthur.ap/index.html

This was never mentioned in "Rocket Man" either!?

fjpalumbo:

Some dozen or more bottles of the top stolen prescription medications are today traced by satellite.

Each...and...every...bottle!

From what I read lately, the plan is to trace "every" bottle of medication from the time it leaves the 'producer' to the 'buyer' and beyond. Now you would think, well, simply toss the bottles and pour out the medication! That's what I thought, too. But then, this is the first real attempt at tracing medications. Nonetheless, how sophisticated things have become will, from the look of things in the past decades, appear rather simple in generations to come. That somehow every whisper from our mouths and actions will somehow be recorded, or retrieved if not already being recorded thru the very nature of the very things of this planet. That is to say, perhaps everything is somehow recorded in the very nature of this planet...it's just a matter of discovering how to retrieve it all in some sort of sensible and managable pattern!

Think, for instance, who would believe that you could peer into the past? Scientists and astronomers do it everyday with telescopes! If the sun were to burn out at this very moment, this very second, to explode and consume the solar system......you wouldn't know anything about it for...9 minutes! Everything would look exactly the same. The lazy afternoon, the few fluffy white clouds passing overhead. Children laughing in the distance. A summer breeze telling you of home cooking down across the way somewheres. It's sounds like science fiction. But we look into an actual past every day if we glance at a sunset..if it be but some 9 minutes ago.

Think of this:
...there are thousands of voices and musics and images right-all-around-us as we live each day, all of which would make no sense to someone a century and a half ago. But with TV signals and radio signals and satellite signals, it's just everyday commonplace. But the notion is incredible, if you look at exactly what is taking place.

I venture to say we haven't scratched the surface ...it is so huge, so mind boggling what is coming...that a sense of this is scattered thru history by only a 'handful' of written words...

====

Nard's 'blab" of the day

Italo Calvino in his "Cosmicomics" story "A Sign in Space" took this concept to a very funny extreme.
Of course, everything everyone has ever said or done IS recorded and WILL be reviewed someday...

[This message has been edited by Braling II (edited 04-06-2006).]

Braling II

Every action, every word...? Hmm...

Oh, yes. I know that! But would that scare off a large percentage of people reading the comment?

This certainly will:

'Plucked' from eternal damnation is God's doing (not ours) ...and NOT understood by the natural mind! The natural mind is ALREADY judged inept by God. God thus gives us HIS mind. Done so by means of Christ who decided willingly to become inept, by, you could sort of say, absorbing our ineptness into himself. (There is this vast manner here where one man's action -Christ-, ignites thru all of time in one grand 'swoop'. Christ judged so venomous that the Father must look away, that Great Exchange has taken place. Damnation exchanged for the mind of Christ. Now both natures war in our soul, the faith that God gives ...which confirms that we are ALREADY forgiven and made whole and complete as intended..and the fallen one that says otherwise but has been given the fatal injection of transient power.

Angels may fall and become devils, and there is no recovery except towards fallen man. Why? All we are told is that God, for eternal ages to come, desires to show His mercy towards 'us' to ALL his creation. I often think, now just what are 'all' that is described. Intelligent witnesses of our redemption?! But that's indescribable!? Of course, anyone who adequately describes any of this to the least 'enth' degree is an artist to behold, a painting to admire, a wordssmith to read, a songwriter to enjoy and admire, a lecturer to sit still for and take it all in.

--------------------------------

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 04-07-2006).]

Nard, both your posts are very deep and brilliant. I particularly liked reading the one before the last. Who indeed, could foresee our world say two hundred years ago. If they saw a jet airplane fly over, they would get the shakes. Consequently, if we travelled several hundred years into the future, we'd probably be equally overcome by either the eden man/God created or the wastelands that could be our fate. Your post reminded me of the beginning of 2001 by A.C. Clarke.

Gotta log off and shut puter down. Heavy, and I do mean heavy storms on the horizon. Hearing some peals now, bye all. See you in Oz.

By the way Grasstains, I couldn't help picking up The Postman, and reading the beginning even as I was almost finishing Machineries of Joy. I was ironically reading specifically, Chicago Abyss, which has uncanny similarities to the premise of The Postman. Although I haven't gotten too far into it yet. It just struck me.