The extinction of human interaction takes yet another step forward...
I hate even thinking this, but as we “progress” in “society” it sure seems like each step “forward” brings us closer and closer to becoming the “Borg” from Star Trek where everything happens in your head and personal interaction becomes less necessary and thus more foreign. I hope this stops or at least slows down at some point and the value of human interaction surfaces as something we want to preserve. I find it sad, however, that this seems more of a hope than an eventuality the way things are going everywhere — even in audio. Ugh. Thoughts?
[please excuse my bad English] I cannot see the list of exhibitors (the website does not display it, maybe my ad & script-blockers).
I don’t see the interest, compared with a good show report (with pics and synthetic description).
Better than nothing, indeed. As soon as it does not cannibalize physical hifi shows. Otherwise, we will all end up with buying our dog or cat on Internet; pet paid with our smartphone, and delivered by a drone at out door. 30 days trial.
Excuse me for perhaps being 90% negative with that comment, but it was more for effect that a literal statement.
My meaning was more that when something is lost, whether it is something trivial like cursive writing or something serious like racial tolerance, it is virtually impossible to regain it.
Yes, there are technological advances that improve our lives, but they aren't all that important when compared to the slow erosion of common decency.
So the algorithm of the soul is? Does music matter without musicians? Without ears to measure? What function is being recreated? If a tree falls in the forest… Can a virtual twin be beautiful? A shadow? If ye are gods, then surely, also devils. How do we reconcile oppositions? With great power comes great responsibility. A celestial pantheon inside of each, we are lived by powers we pretend to understand. Humans are pathological animals. Character as destiny. Are we citizens or consumers? Would you rather create art, or melodrama? Do we live in a culture, or an economy? Listening for the Muse, we discover portions of ourselves. Revelation. What cosmological imagination animates its children’s labors? What value, ones intent? How one listens determines what one hears. What have you sacrificed? What have you lost? Who have you loved? Who are your mentors? Whose tree of ideas do you reside within? How does one ‘see thru’ events? How one looks, determines what one sees. The middleware of the soul is Democratic. Breathe. The great sin of the age is literalism. Play, as if your life depended upon it. Don’t let perfection become the enemy of the good. Remains a sceptic, not a cynic. Poems, like songs, are prayers. Sing. Life at best, is an approximation, and to have lived is to have failed. Learn to love your failures. All origins are obscure and absolutes are bullshit. Count your lucky Qubits. Laugh at yourself, after all it’s the fools progress. Called or uncalled, the gods are present. Believe in miracles, we all contain a bit of magic, be it dark or light…
"Ahh yes, the old we are still running around in bear skins living in caves story. Just exactly how far gone do you have to be to believe this while using your keyboard to put this on the internet?"
My apologies I didn't think anyone would take that sentence literally. I will try to make it so the entire bell curve can understand next time.
A dying tree falls into the river. It becomes a haven for small creatures and food for others. It leaves behind roots and a stump which equally becomes a home for life and nutrients for others. When will it cease to be a tree? Our atoms will feed the cosmos and continue the cycle or achieve an infinite absolute zero which will be a damn shame. Zoom calls suck but I am retired now and have more important things to do like contemplate atoms and trees and what component to add next.
@ghdprentice ....and you are one lucky individual in your experience. 👍
Speaking of stories that make you do a 'parking brake halt from 80'.....
Spouse 'n self on a road trip, long ago, away in somewhere lower Idaho. Stopped at a crossroads, middle of nowhere with nothing but a half dozen parked dusty cars...a small whiteish bus pulls over, appropo amount of citizens dismount.
Bus has a very odd name, but no other means of discerning it's service to or for.... *?*
Intersect one woman nearing her car.... 'What, Whom, Why?'
"It (X) is a mine."
Really...what for?
"
Molybdenum.....used for making rocket nose cones."
Oh....
"Yeah, business is real slow.....we need a war."
It's still....very hard...to either describe or even our reaction to that comment. Or the simple matter of fact way it was stated.
We got the 'ell away from there.....but it took awhile to shake the effect of that tossed over shoulder aside.
Happy to think you were engaged in trying to balance That out....to Any degree...
I am currently reading the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. First they had representatives of the population, the Senate, and elected head with term limits. The populous became complacent and disconnected, they were cut out of the loop, the Senate was then stuffed with cronies and term limits for Caesar became lifelong. Starting the long decline of the empire.
I have always appreciated Durants’, The Story of Civilization where he says that throughout history civilization sparks and ignites, grows bright for a time, flickers and dies, and sparks somewhere else. We have been lucky enough to live (or at least me) post WWII in a relatively peaceful time for the earth. Climate change is going to cause enormous global conflict. Hang on to your hat.
Anyway, I agree with you. Although I have no idea why you brought that up. The global commerce I have been involved in has been an exceptional source of reducing tension and bringing the countries together and pushing off conflict. I have friends in China, across Europe, Mexico, Japan… supply chains reduces conspiracy theories about what the “other side” is thinking.
@ghdprentice , if history dictates what will happen first is someone or group of someones will see an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and seize power like the Nazi's and the Japanese militarists prior to world war two. In the mean while globalist businessmen will capitalize on the situation selling us the weapons to kill ourselves with. I'm sorry I can't paint a rosier future but look at the idiots we elected. Stiff upper lip though. Keep up those positive vibes.
I don't want to be 100% negative, when was the last time anything in this world changed for the better?
Ahh yes, the old we are still running around in bear skins living in caves story. Just exactly how far gone do you have to be to believe this while using your keyboard to put this on the internet?
I don't want to be 100% negative, when was the last time anything in this world changed for the better?
Man, I’d hate to hear from you when you WANT to be negative. But it does seem like one step forward and two steps back at times. When we forget what we’re losing with “progress,” that’s what I really fear I guess.
I know what you mean and although I don't want to be 100% negative, when was the last time anything in this world changed for the better?
Remember when couples would go out to their favourite restaurant to have a nice meal, a glass or two of wine and just talk? These days you will see couples in that same restaurant, totally silent staring into their phones.
They may as well be alone.
Social media does not bring people together. It only broadens the gap by removing spontaneous interplay and the intimate bonding brought about by looking into someone's eyes, reading their body language and sharing emotions.
Sadly, this is a disease of the young and as long as people are making oodles of money and remain oblivious to there even being a problem, nothing will change.
I don't get why this event even exists. Our audio pursuits are linked (for me) directly to our ears....and they won't be anywhere near the exhibited equipment. The Fyre analogy is spookily accurate....
The Great Reset = "We Are Borg. You Will Be Assimilated. Resistance is Futile". You will become part of the Collective. You will be plugged into the network and take your given place
In it's current state this 'AVSummit' webpage looks more like a scam, luring you into paying $25. It's scheduled for 3 weeks from now, but there's no schedule yet, no list of exhibitioners, the Facebook link doesn't work and info on who exactly is organizing this is scarce. The whole set up of the webpage just doesn't feel right to me. I'd be cautious ... very cautious.
I’m deliberately going to keep my response limited to a couple of examples because the topic is a broad disturbing one that conjures up the worst dystopian visions and I want to avoid politics for obvious reasons. Once I retired from full time practice, I taught part-time. I still do and enjoy it immensely. The students and faculty carried a heavy burden during Covid last year in trying to navigate what would be an ordinary day through work arounds involving lots of Zoom meetings. (It doesn’t have to be Zoom, it could be Team or any other platform of this type). There was a disconnect on a fundamental level between what goes on via tele or video-cast in real time and what happens in the classroom with real people sitting in the seats. By the peak of Covid, and particularly after a vicious cold snap down here that left us without power, heat, etc. (my faith in the Texas grid is not yet fully restored), the students had that 1,000 yard stare- like they had seen the horror of war and it changed them. At best, faculty could entertain questions from remote audience members, repeat the question for the benefit of the audience at large and attempt to answer it. But that was pretty much it. The interpersonal interaction of being in the same room was missing; something that almost always proved true in meetings v. telephone or video conferences. In person was better. Are all in person interactions good? No. But an advantage of the impersonal "you will view this video feed" is almost zero accountability. Information imparted, program over, full stop. Not just scripted but there is really no one there to talk to.
Ever talk to "customer service"? Like most else in the modern world, it means exactly the opposite of the term- these are the folks that fend off complaints with the aim of getting rid of your complaint with the minimum of cost to the company (and its personnel- I suspect that first tier customer service personnel get docked for even allowing a call with a supervisor in some places because the object is to avoid, not address, the problem that initiated the customer’s dissatisfaction, call for support, etc). That to me, simply as a consumer, is where this is obviously heading; you won’t be able to converse with real people and get solid info, the parts you actually need or whatever other satisfaction is required, with a simply phone call. Except perhaps for the "bespoke" high dollar clients. Wanna rent a jet? Bet you can talk to a very nice human. The rest, the impact on culture at large, how we humans interact as a species and the impact of what could be considered The Great Disconnect™ as a post-Covid function raises so many other questions that are fascinating but beyond the appropriate scope of this board as subject matter. In some ways, in audio, we have it "good." A lot of the companies are smaller, and though dependent on the parts and supply chain, there is a person there, sometimes the actual designer/builder. I know that in the past, this has been a generational thing where older people like me disdain what the world has become, and seem to prefer the old days with rose colored glasses firmly in place. At the same time, the youngins coming up say "You don’t get our experience so how can you judge" and I think they are correct in that. I wonder, in the turning of epochs, whether people in the midst of them--while change is in flux --are more prone to this; to take that a step further, what if this process of change is really a constant state of flux so that people are always on one side or another of a divide in time/and the culture/thinking associated with it. Most speculative fiction I’ve read doesn’t answer the harder questions -- instead, the stories usually revert to safe ground with villains, heroes and the usual tropes associated with thrillers and dramatic story telling. Reading about ancient civilizations-- ones that pre-date the Roman Empire for example, flourished and expired (and aren’t even on the list of attractions for tourists, they are simply forgotten unless one digs into history) seem to be a matter of course in the ancient world. I’m not sure if the "modern" world is different.
"Are we not men? We are DEVO!" And the divergence is....more concerning, and on occasion disturbing....
Well, some audio ('av'...ok...) shows, 'meet 'n greets', occur if only to draw the minority ('us', if you will) into interactions that either serve to get a name, a product, or some business drawn in.
We're a very small slice of the pie chart.
AXPONA and the like may be doomed by the tech not of its' making, and I'm not referring to CV or what may lie in wait ahead in that surreality....
VR with your personal headphones might be in (if not yours) the future. A 'live audio feed' from an array of calibrated mics that, like your video view, allow you to move about, 'sit down' in a sweet spot, turn your 'head' 360x,y,z....
Or, travel to another city for a show that hyped an extravaganza and delivered a wet mop to the ears and eyes....and even a drink at the hotel bar costs as much as half of the bottle that 'contributed to it'....
...however blandly..... Even for a brew, FGS....🤦♂️😒
Some might want to actually want to meet me IRL, if only to toss me over a railing. Others, a nod, secretly dispatched...
"Happy Hour" name tags can be dangerous, dependent upon how one is perceived.... ;)
While social media and the pandemic have pushed social interaction to the background. I think there will be a strong rebound. We are social animals. I was an executive for most of my career in global companies. For instance in logistics… you have a picture of what you think is going on… have many conference calls… then fly to Portugal, or China and WTF. What you find out is completely different. Then people. Managing a global project… you want to effectively get something done… you look the guy in the face and have dinner and talk about his family… then when stuff gets behind, you call him and you know him, he knows you… there is no substitute. $5K or $7K for a trip to Japan or Singapore is completely worth it.
I chose business as an example, it is a really high cost example… but people want to be in the company of people. Work will change to limit costs by more work at home… but not entirely. It is our species strength… it is why we dominate the earth. Hopefully it will not also be our downfall.
People are social animals and when we get the pandemic under control people will flood back out to interact.
Some very good and thought-provoking responses. I have to say that validating online audio shows using porn as an analogy was very unexpected, and effective. I agree that if I can’t make it to an audio show it’d still be interesting to glean what I can thru some high-quality digital reproductions — better than nothing, right? As always, MC’s sarcasm sprinkled with insight is appreciated. I do hope we find a way forward where all the digital convenience can coexist and enhance the overall human experience, but maybe, and as with many new things in life, we need to over pursue in a new direction first to find the ultimate balance. I sure hope that’s the case here.
Because they would never mess with human interaction on-line the way they bury results they don't like with search engines, they would never just declare your opinion misleading information in order to censor it, or stop you from buying what you want because they don’t care for your views, no of course not and even if they did it would all be for your own good so you would be thankful for their watchful benevolence. Right?
We are mammals, not cyborgs, and no amount of computer hardware can change that salient fact.
Nor should it ever try to for the consequences would be dire.
Having said that, there's no reason why software based online Hi-Fi shows can't co-exist alongside hardware based actual ones in the same way that pornography can substitute for sex.
We all have needs and thankfully there's a place for both.
I think that's a good observation, but let's zoom out by another factor: how about audio recordings, listened in the privacy of one's own home, also removing one from social interaction with other audiophiles, and the performers, themselves?
I have no interest in an online summit....I have been to several trade shows both as a vendor and an end user and its not an experience you can duplicate online.
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