(written on Sep 27, 2010)

Hello my little (well, not so little anymore) monitor screen! How are you? Even though I just said I don’t think you are little anymore doesn’t mean I don’t want a bigger one. Anyway that’s not the point….what was I going to write….ermmm….oooopsie….forgot all about it thinking about your size (yes you, Mr. Monitor) n all . Awritey then….let’s just stay on you and see what comes a-running from my quasi-useless mind.

Well Mr. Monitor, since you know you are from a company called BenQ and you use a 23 inch Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), oh and the best part is you support HD (16:9 aspect ratio for awesome movies). But don’t flatter yourself yet. There are bigger and better ones out there with loads n loads of extra features. On the contrary, do you remember when I first brought you home and you got to meet you old-man who lives in my sister’s room? Yes, the black Samsung 15 inches monitor. Well his story is no different than yours. Before I brought him to the house, your grand-daddy was here too – the Acer 14 inch one. So, you see – it’s no use flattering yourself OR getting depressed either!

Well Mr. Monitor as you see we are never satisfied with you guys. We always want a bigger and better one (and there is ALWAYS a bigger and better one – keep that in your mind). We earthlings are have somewhat become slaves to the advancement of technology. Okay cut that, there’s a flaw in the last sentence. We have become SLAVES to the IMPROVEMENT and ENHANCEMENT of technology….and THAT, my friend, is sad. We want a bigger TV or a bigger monitor or a PS3 (boy o boy) but we don’t necessarily feel the urge to watch holographic TV or a virtual reality realm like “Quest World.” And rightfully so. If you have watched Johnny Quest (well you indeed HAVE Mr. Monitor, since I have played that cartoon several times on you) you would know that a fantasy realm where you yourself can be present is nothing but science fiction! Right!?!?!?!

WRONG!!!!!!!! A torturously loud aero-plane just flew by and I was like….okay…..some people are going abroad! Cool! But rewind 150 years back and what you find is Aero-planes only in the fantasies on Jules Verne. Lets go further back and we find cool designs of aero-planes and submarines drawn by Leonardo DaVinci during the renaissance period. Now let us just come a little further ahead and what do we see? Okay lemme just say what I am thinking – I see the Wright brothers trying to make a plane and falling off cliffs (miserably trying to be birds). What a bummer, ey? NOPE!!!! The fact that an aero-plane just flew by and I barely noticed …. proves that all those fantasies CAN definitely come about!!!! But where is the problem, why can’t we even expect such magical fixation to come to life?

The answer is easy Mr. Monitor! We dare not seek the magical entities for the techno-era (with all the E3 and IPods) has taught us not to. We have the iPOD (or a Zune…or pick your favorite music player), a fast computer, fast cars, cool TVs, monitors like you yourself! All we want is a slicker mp3 player, a better gaming machine, a “hotter” car, a larger and slimmer TV and the most eye-candy monitor (don’t feel sad monitor, I like you too). The thing to notice is, we want the SAME things – only better. That’s why they are also trying to make “cooler” versions of the SAME thing over and over again. Conversely the opposite can be considered too – the paradigm where THEY have run out of ideas (hey Mr. Monitor, I am NOT writing this as an engineering student, I’m just being a lay-person who wants cooler stuff so don’t blame me) and as a way out, they have enslaved our minds into wanting cooler IPods (bravo Mr. Jobs!!!!) and slicker cell-phones (the stuff they have already made decades ago).

So you see we are kinda running around in circles. Let’s look at what we got in the last century. Well, we did really get quite a lot there. Einstein gave the wave-particle quality theory/quantum approach to everything (yes, not just light), we got the atom bomb (cool ey? since we like to masquerade it as a faulty utilization claiming it to be the power source of tomorrow – sort of farce but true nonetheless). Then what? Finally came the string theory which is the “only” field in which the physicists are working to break new grounds (and failing sadly). They boast about the string theory/M-theory over there in Princeton and Stanford but they made minuscule advancement of the theory since the 70’s.  Ohh how could I forget Mr. Hawking, who is trying to figure out everything about the big bang theory! I’ve gotta admit, Mr. Monitor, I like that guys’ works since he was quite logical in “The Brief History of Time.” I still haven’t read the new book where he denounces the existence of God (an idea which I don’t like). SCRATCH THAT! Mr. Hawking is quite misunderstood by some of us radicals in that book, I think, since he does NOT necessarily denounces God rather he has figured out this bizarre theory that the creation of life can possibly be a coincidence without the hand of God in it, which if you can read good English will tell you that if he is put up on a court of law, you can’t charge him with heresy since he never said there’s no God, he merely said, there may not be one (that disturbs me too, but I shall let him be and respect his opinions).  Anyway, you all should read the book. I heard it is good. However, bottom line is the actual discipline of “science” has reached a quite barren and stagnate state in my opinion.

Okay, Mr. Monitor I think I am straying from the topic at hand. The point is Mr. Monitor, I know that there will be cooler models and versions of you but going in circles just doesn’t cut it anymore, it doesn’t really help us earthlings. Luckily, some of the works DO care to elucidate hope. The search for alternative fuel, train running on water (well not on “top” of water, I mean fueled by water) are things that the earthlings should endorse more than a fancier TV. Sadly corporations like BP and SHELL are there to put a halt in these fields or just keep them in check till they drain out of their businesses themselves. It’s a sad sad word, you see, Mr. Monitor!

Who wants a cooler TV if there is no next generation or everyone in 20 years goes underwater? I’m sure you all felt the shake on the night before Eid, huh! So, do you want to save your lives or do you want fancy gadgets!?

It’s very easy to act “wise” and all; but lemme confess, Mr. Monitor – I really really want a 52 inch TV in my bedroom along with the PS3 and let’s not forget – an Audi!

HA!

DISCLAIMER: I write this as a commoner – NOT as an engineering/science student! 

Arent those three up there just plain cool?!?!?! What about these guys?

Categories: Tech

Tags: Asia, Economics, Poverty, Science, Technology