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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on February 24, 2009 at 11:10pm

This seems like the perfect companion technology for Quividi billboards -

The HyperSonic Sound® technology gives you the ability to direct sound exactly where you want it.

We're heading off in uncharted waters here. And given our governments ineptitude and zero understand of the internet while blundering about formulating policy for it, it is reason enough to worry. Consider spam legislation - its a complete no brainer to the ordinary person. Yet it took years of debate and wasted time to produce feeble regulations that are virtually toothless.

Permalink Reply by Tedster on February 26, 2009 at 1:17am

This is what really has screwed up modern culture is the consumerism. Adds really brings anxiety because you have to get everything to meet propagated personal expectations, and then your in debt so you have to work uncomplaining and keep up with bills. That Eye for an Eye is really going to accelerate that anxiety.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on February 26, 2009 at 6:23am

It's out of control, and I have no faith, given politicians inherent ignorance of technology and preference to look the other way whenever having to deal with something thats in the too hard basket, it will be brought under control in any realistic manner.

"Anxiety" is only the tip of the iceberg. What we're dealing with here is essentially an environmental problem - psychic (or psychological if you prefer) pollution. Some social commentators have made little ripples at identifying it as such, and are totally being ignored. But if you think about it, any urbanised citizen in any first world economy is under psychic assault from the moment they open their eyes in the morning and until they close them again at night by a marketing propaganda blitzkrieg (and even then, it can still permeate your dreams). You cannot look anywhere without your sight being polluted by logos, images of faux utopias and slogans. Your consciousness is being raped by commercial suggestion from all directions, each advertisement fighting desperately to be the loudest and commandeer your attention.

Our entire foundation of cultural semiotics, that has been relatively unchanged for thousands of years, has been torn up, vandalised and perverted purely to get you to buy crap you don't need. The archetypical symbolism that we share in our subconscious as a species is being spray painted over and replaced with MacDonalds, Nike and Coca Cola logos. What are the long term psychological consequences of this going to be for our society ? No one has really thought this through. Our minds are programmable - as can be seen from people that fall prey to addictions or cultivate desires that are criminal (priests bound by vows of celibacy finding an outlet in choirboys or pupils as an example). What is this bombardment of marketing garbage doing to our psychological programming ? Anxiety, I think, is the least of our problems. This psychic pollution has far more damaging consequences - decades of fuelling rapacious and unnecessary consumption is now having genuine and very grave environmental and economic consequences. People are eager to lay the blame on the oil and automotive companies - but I think the major proportion of blame should lie with our marketing and business schools that have managed to convince the wealthiest demographics in the planet that they NEED to have a humvee that runs at 4 miles to the gallon. Yet you mention to anybody that you want to hold marketers and advertisers accountable for much of the worlds grief, and people will look at you like you're a madman.

Now. these technologies want to penetrate even deeper into our minds and beings using any means available. Can anybody really see a silver lining to this ?

[You can tie this in with my ranting about MySpace if you please]

Permalink Reply by Chris G on January 19, 2011 at 11:31pm

That's a great article.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on March 15, 2009 at 5:21am

Posted by Colin: