<nettime> WAITING FOR THE I-BOMB

[Tom Sherman <twsherma@mailbox.syr.edu>]

WAITING FOR THE I-BOMB

Everyone seems to be waiting for the I-Bomb, thinking it will be dropped
sometime in the next century.  There will come a time when the world will
be perilously unstable, a time when the I-Bomb will be needed to wipe,
stabilize and reset the integrated global data and information system. 

The I-Bomb's elaborate infrastructure has been in development since the
mid-20th century.  Piece after piece has been assembled and implemented,
always rationalized by sweeping statements of public benefit.  Television,
satellites, cable, stereophonic sound, video, VCRs, personal computers,
CDs, fax, the internet, fiber-optic cable, wireless phones, the Web, and
digital everything--we are told these things are all good for us.  These
are real technological advances.  This incredibly complex and all
pervasive media infrastructure has grown like a fantastic thriving garden
during an endlessly hot summer with more than sufficient rain.  All of a
sudden we have more tomatoes than we can give away. 

Governments struggle to regulate this exploding garden of media
technologies and of course to maintain the right and expertise to take
control of this infrastructure in the case of a global emergency. 
Commercial enterprises need little encouragement to spread out and
overwhelm the system and its inhabitants with calculated manipulations of
endless permutation but identical intent--to trick people and take their
money.  Common folks are invited to participate from the get-go, fleshing
out the new territory from the ground up, subjecting themselves to an
atmosphere of increasing vulnerability and manipulation. 

In the beginning there is space for everyone and the early adapters settle
in and trash the new environment.  It is only a matter of time before
business interests develop and rents begin to rise.  There are always
great spaces with low rents at the onset of gentrification, but once the
territory is truly coveted, then the savage exploitation may commence. 
There is nothing more valuable than a good address, and this is where most
of the squabbles occur, over one's exact position in the newly desired
territory. 


-----

NEWS MUSIC (nt) 

I've been thinking a lot about delivering a newscast set to music, serious
music.  Right now music is used to introduce the news or to segue between
the news and the ads, or vice-versa.  Alarming special events like giant
earthquakes, hurricanes, transportation disasters or military campaigns,
have their own theme music, usually an elevation of horns anchored with
dramatic pounding drums.  But such conventional news-music isn't actually
mixed into or run under the delivery of the news because it would
emphasize the show business side of the news.  Music would undermine the
authority and weaken the integrity of the plain and simple truth
represented by the nakedness of the newscaster's voice.  I think the news
could use some music, to move it along and make it more like a movie or a
song.  I know it's difficult to imagine the news delivered with authority
in a musical voice.  But I think this is right around the corner.  It's
just a matter of time.  Serious news-music just hasn't been written yet. 


Tom Sherman

-----

(nt) Nerve Theory will present an updated version of "Shades of Catatonia" 
at Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Wand 5 e.V. im Filmhaus, Stuttgart, Germany,
January 15, 2000.  Nerve Theory is the collaborative identity of Bernhard
Loibner and Tom Sherman.  For more information on Nerve Theory, visit the
All.Quiet website:  http://www.allquiet.org/



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