Trapped in the Future with Jobs & Cameron

Annalee Newitz at i09 has published my favorite piece on the iPad so far, dubbing it "Crap Futurism":

"The iPad embodies, as much as possible, the mythical convergence device that technophiles have been craving for almost two decades...The iPad appeals to a very deep and longlived fantasy in the consumer electronics world: A device that does it all. At least, if all you want to do is consume media...The iPad takes us back to the 1980s, or maybe even the 1950s. It's likely to be a device that changes our future, but what that means is we're facing a tomorrow where true innovation is sidelined by a device that represents a convergence of old media and shopping."
 

With the iPad, Jobs is going backwards in time (unlike the iPhone - see my last post). The device has a nostalgic in feel - that matches a faded vision of techno-futurism that Jobs and Ives seem determined to refer to as "magic" (perhaps Jobs' seat on the Disney board is going to his head?). The most telling moment for me was when he unveiled the iBooks store. Not only is it a blatant rip-off of delicious library but it looks straight out of the Sorcerer's Assistant with its cutesy woodgrain shelves.

With the latest version of iWork Jobs seems determined to bring back every trite visual metaphor from early 90's CD-ROM's (for a detailed breakdown of the new iPad UI check out Luke Wreblowski's latest post). Perhaps the iPad should come with its own Apple-branded Snuggie?

Reminds me of another piece of 'Crap Futurism' that is hogging the cultural airwaves: Avatar. I grew up on 1970's sci-fi fantasy. Devouring Tolkien, Dune and any other series I could get my hands on. One of the happiest days of my life was going to Star Wars with all of my friends on my 11th birthday and sitting in the front row. But I have long since moved on from the land of Yes album covers, Boris Vallejo posters and blue alien hotties in teeny-weeny bikinis. 

The original Alien, Bladerunner, Snow Crash and, most recently, Children of Men, have disabused me of my teen fantasies of floating planets full of magical dragons and tree people waiting to be discovered. Yet James Cameron seems permanently trapped in the past. With Avatar he has produced a stunning piece of nostalgia that is as dated as it is shiny. Once again Annalee Newitz nails it with her piece "When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar":

"Science fiction is exciting because it promises to show the world and the universe from perspectives radically unlike what we've seen before. But until white people stop making movies like Avatar, I fear that I'm doomed to see the same old story again and again."

Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a moment in which not just our present, but our 'bright' cultural future, is trapped in the minds of two middle-aged, mega-maniacal tyrants of nostalgia. Welcome to Pandora!