Friday, March 07, 2008

Book Review: Feed by MT Anderson

The feed is in their minds, keeping them constantly connected. And this story stays in the minds of the reader as well. You will not want to put down MT Anderson's Feed and even when you do, the story stays in your head. Part teenage love story and part biting satire this book is amazing. It is unlike other books and gives us readers a taste of what it would be like to be constantly connected, to advance so far ahead that we loose sight of where we came from. So far ahead that we loose sight of who we are and what's imporant and see only the barrage of banners advertising the next big thing.

If the point of science fiction is to warn us of what could be coming, then Adverson has acheived it. The story is written realistically from the point of view of a hipster teen named Titus. He goes to the moon with his friends and meets a girl, then they go to a club & are hacked. Suddenly Titus finds himself grappling with problems he'd never conceived of, and on the biggest adventure of his life: an introduction to real life.

I could recommend this book to certain groups of people based on their taste in literature, or could relate to it, but that wouldn't be good enough. Everyone needs to read this book.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Moonvertising

Moonvertising

I knew this was coming eventually: using the moon as a gigantic billboard. Starting March 21st Rolling Rock will have their logo imprinted on the moon's surface with a laser. Every full moon companies will be able to do this. We're turning the moon into the galaxy's biggest advertisement.

Rolling Rock is an independently spirited beer that does things differently, which is why we're trying a new, more tasteful marketing approach this year: putting our logo on the moon -- movertising.

Tasteful? I don't think so.

My father made a good point about this, in a few years the children growing up will never know what a full moon looks like without somebody's banner plastered across it.

What has the world come to when we can't even gaze up at the stars without being subjected to this kind of media infiltration? I keep thinking of MT Anderson's Feed and how the moon was transformed into a tackier version of Vegas and there were flashing billboards at the bottom of lakes for all the "upcars" going above to see. Is that what's next for us? Because, after all, isn't the point of science fiction to prevent certain futures from becoming reality?

Another thing I wonder about is what effect will this have on the moon? If it changes things, even a little bit, it could really affect us here on Earth. The moon controls the tides, and if the tides are changed, well...just watch The Day After Tomorrow. That's the most extreme example, of course, but the moon does have affects on the tide & the tide in turn has affects on other parts of our ecosystem.

For the record, I'm against this. But I'd like to hear your thoughts, so sound off!

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