○On Sunday, January 22, 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII. With the exception of a few older Raiders fans, we all remember him that night 40 years ago with one ad that set the tone for the techno-optimism that would dominate the 21st century. did.
Advertisement showed an auditorium full of zombie-like figures watching a projection of an elderly leader resembling the Emperor from 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. A young, athletic woman wearing red and white (the colors of the flag of Poland, which waged a massive labor uprising against the Soviet-controlled communist state) spins a hammer and frames the face of her leader. He threw it across the screen. As armored police rush in to stop her.
The ad explicitly referenced George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Meanwhile, then-President Ronald Reagan began his re-election campaign with the audacity to confront the threat of the totalitarian Soviet Union, increasing the risk of global nuclear annihilation.
That same month, Apple began selling personal computers. This will change the way we think about computing technology in our lives and will lead to many of the ideological changes that will drive the 21st century. In many ways, the long 21st century began 40 years ago this week for him.
From a garage-based startup in Cupertino, California, we have steadily grown to where we are today. The most valuable company in the history of the world, Apple has changed the way we experience culture and each other. While not the only force to do so, if you look at other ruling forces that left their mark in 1984, such as Reagan, Apple is a key player in how we view and govern ourselves over the next 40 years. It was part of a larger change. Years later, it still impacts daily life in ways few could have imagined at the time.
Before the Macintosh debuted, Apple created high-quality computers like the Apple II (1979) that ran programs using the standard operating system at the time, the Apple Disc Operating System (which was similar to the Apple Disc Operating System). was highly regarded among computer enthusiasts for producing innovative desktop computers. MS-DOS was provided by a small then-starting company called Microsoft and could be programmed in languages such as Basic.
Companies like Texas Instruments and Atari had brought user-friendly computers to homes before the Macintosh, and IBM and Commodore had made desktop computers for businesses, but the Macintosh was something different. I was promised something.
The Macintosh created a mass market for usable computers that looked more like magic than machines. The Macintosh is a sealed box that hides the board and cables and presents a sleekly designed box, similar to the MacBook and the iPhone, which was released in 2007 and was the most influential and profitable of Apple's products. We have established design standards for what will become.
The iPhone represents much of what's appealing and loathsome about 21st century life. This is a device that does things that no other device or technology can do. It just provides all of that in its own controlled environment that masks all of the actual technology and the human agency that created it. There may be a little elf in there.
Billions of people now use such equipment, but few people ever look inside or think about the people who mined the metals and assembled the parts in dangerous conditions. plug. There are now cars and appliances designed to feel like an iPhone, all glass, metal, curves, and icons. None of them provide any clues for humans to build or maintain them. Everything seems like magic.
The shift to magic by design has blinded us to the real situation of most people working and living in the world. Gated devices are similar to gated communities. What's more, the sealed boxes are equipped with ubiquitous cameras and location devices, and when connected through invisible radio signals, serve as a global surveillance system that Soviet dictators never dreamed of. . We have also entered a world of soft control beyond Orwell's imagination.
Gated communities began to grow in popularity in the United States during the Reagan administration. It was to provide the illusion of safety against imagined but undefined invaders. They also resembled private states, with exclusive membership and strict rules of etiquette.
Reagan won reelection in a landslide in the November 1984 election. His Reagan victory established a nearly unwavering commitment to market fundamentalism and technological optimism that was largely adopted by Reagan's critics and even his successors like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. . Outside the United States, ostensibly left-wing 20th century leaders such as Greece's Andreas Papandreou, France's François Mitterrand, and Britain's Tony Blair limited the vision of change that the growing neoliberal consensus allowed. was.
By the beginning of this century, questioning the techno-optimism imposed by Apple and the faith in neoliberalism secured by Reagan's hold on the world's political imagination seems like a fit of sulking or sulking. Probably. Does anyone doubt the democratizing and liberating potential of computer technology and free markets?
Now, a quarter of the way through this century, it's clear that the only promises kept were to Apple's shareholders and the descendants of Reagan's politicians. Democracy is in tatters around the world. Networked computers rob relationships, communities, and society of the joy and humanity. The economy is more stratified than ever before. Politics excludes any positive vision of a better future.
Of course, you can't blame Apple or Reagan. They simply distilled, harnessed, and sold back to us what we longed for: a simple story of inevitable progress and liberation. If we had heeded the warnings in Orwell's book instead of Apple's ads, we might have learned that simple stories never have happy endings.
Source: www.theguardian.com
