The Downside

We are on the cusp of a complete paradigm shift in technology. Just as it took humanity many years to learn how to efficiently use the combustion engine to propel itself around the planet, we are just now learning what the Internet and wireless technologies can enable us to do. We’re just scratching the surface.

The perfect example of this is Tivo. I love my Tivo. And, I hate my Tivo. It’s simultaneously a quantum leap over the previous technology, and it’s still stuck in the Stone Age.

I don’t think I need to elaborate on why I love my Tivo because it’s been covered pretty extensively by a myriad of other authors.

As much as I love my Tivo, I hate how it’s so 1998. Yes, it’s pretty cool that I can stop live TV, and record it all to a massive hard drive so I can easily call it up whenever I want, but it actually is a step backwards in what it enables us as humans to do.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s, we could share TV programs with our friends by passing video cassette tapes to them. Now what do we do? The more technically savvy of us burn DVDs, but this is hardly easy for the mainstream market. Most of us ask our friends to come over so we can show them that new episode of Prison Break. We are tied to our Tivos. We’re tied to our living rooms. It sucks.

To borrow a phrase from a wise friend, here’s my orgasmic scenario – here’s how media technology should, and eventually will, work:

Tivo won’t be a box. It will be a website that records all my shows. Then, I can watch them on my couch, in my bedroom, at Jeremy’s house, and at the mall while my girlfriend tries on shoes. I won’t have to podcast it because I can download and watch video on whatever mobile device I have with me, be it a cell phone, a PDA, or a two-way super-secret wrist watch.

For that matter, all of my media will work like this. My Tool MP3s, my reruns of The Venture Brothers, my Stewie sound clips – I can listen and watch to my heart’s content from anywhere because I’ll be connected to the Internet everywhere.

I don’t want to be tied to a box in my living room. I don’t want my media held captive on hard drives – I want it whenever and wherever I want it.

The Slingbox which allows you to watch your TV from any ‘net-connected PC is a half-step in the right direction.

Of course, it isn’t Tivo’s fault that we’re in this situation. We’re held back by two major things – bandwidth, particularly for mobile devices, and the fact that most TV’s aren’t Internet-capable yet. But these are very temporary obstacles. Within a few years, every media device will be on the Internet, cell phones will have connections like cable-modems, and we’ll be free. We’ll frolic in the fields until we tire, and then we’ll sit back and watch Lost until it gets dark and we get creeped out and run back to the farm willy-nilly.

My orgasmic scenario is coming. It’s not far off. It will liberate the human race just as the automobile did. Is Tivo ready?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Internet, Media, Technology. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.