-On page 187 when Slade is discussing how "obsolescence began to take on increasingly abstract meanings (187)", I find this to be very interesting because the macro-level effects of this have been huge since the 1960s. No longer is obsolescence pigeon-holed to "strictly physical objects", but people's training, jobs, and knowledge have all now become obsolete with the rise of computes and technically advanced machinery. This started a shift in employment with the younger generation getting the technical training necessary to maintain and even create these new machines, thus rendering the older generation obsolete. So now for the first time, your age is something that is being created obsolete; not for the obvious fact of simply their age, but all that goes into their age and their lack of tech savvyness is what makes them literally obsolete in the evolving industrial and business worlds. Even today we have very similar issues associated with technology, but in many ways on a day-to-day level, its more about software knowledge rather than physical tech knowledge, but both are going to be helpful in any job anywhere. My excel knowledge is far from perfect, and that is honestly a downside of hiring me. I am pretty proficient in a program run on linux called Tribute, my fathers industrial supply company uses that, however not many other companies use Tribute so all that knowledge is likely to go to waste which would then render all that skill and knowledge obsolete when I begin to work on whatever computer software program they have at whatever job I get.
-With the creation of integrated circuits by the work of Jack Kilby and Noyce, “it combined three cutting-edge technologies into a single sealed device (193)”. This is a great example of the speed of technological progress; a few years before each of these components was recently a brand new technology and now they’ve been merged together which has made their individual selves obsolete. So each technician who worked or even created the individual components, in order to not become obsolete himself, now has to learn how to work and build these IC circuits which employ all different sorts of technology into one more powerful circuit.
-The first software that would be truly universal in both terms of availability and demand was a word processing system. The first systems that were not typewriters, were mainly mainframe systems that were hard to use and expensive (207). Seymour Rubinstein in 1979 came out with his second word system called WordStar, replacing the somewhat shitty WordMaster (207). This product was marketed to executives who already owned an Apple II computer because the price was $450, however if enough companies invested in this software, it rendered the “typing pools” obsolete. This one readily available product created a whole new business dynamic with the obsolescence of the typing pools, but more importantly with the benefit of employing half of the same employees to do the same work, plus extra work which the WordStar allowed for. Technological advancements helped save money, and grow your business with the new opportunities these computers afforded.
-I actually did not know that the first video game was Spacewar developed in 1962 (217). I thought it was a tennis-type game played with this little blue dot screen in the 50s. I could be wrong, or the books definition of what a video game is doesn’t include the absurdly crude game I’m thinking of. What I also find quite funny, is that the game Computer Space was apparently going to be a huge step up in video game technology, however it required the player to read a manual on how to play, and “few arcade players were willing to do that (217)”. This is funny because the strong base of video game players today is exactly the same…slightly lazy, slightly socially awkward, slightly stonerish and definitely, definitely, not gonna waste time reading a manual to play a game. Any time I pick up a new game and need to hit pause and look at the manual every few minutes because I don’t know how to do something, is usually a game I return the same day. If its super awesome but hard to play, yah, maybe I’ll put up with it. But if its anything short of spectacular, I’m going to return it the same day and get and get a game I know I’ll like like Madden or NHL haha. But the same guy who created this game, Nolan Bushnell, went on to create Atari and Pong so I guess he got the “intuitive” video game memo.
-Another point with this Atari video game concept is that when they went to sell it to Ballys, a major pinball company, the executives were less than thrilled with the lack of mobile parts in the game (218). Their business model was based on flashing lights, moving parts, and action of the person; this new system had two moving parts and no real physical movement. However because “the home video game market was essentially a subfield of consumer electronics, it went unnoticed by pinball manufacturers (220)”, which was an egregious oversight as we now see today. The pinball arcade system was super popular even up through the eighties, but again, with the technological advancements of the computer and graphical user interface, the age of the arcade was dying and the rise of the home gaming console was about to begin. The first Nintendo was the first major market home console and it started the drive and push of the home gaming market. On top of the home console market, the portable gaming market was also in high demand and the Nintendo Gameboy was the answer to that demand.
-Now, video games have become a cultural obsession and has “such a fundamental impact on our society in so many areas (225)”. Pinball has been rendered obsolete due to a changing in the society and culture of the eras. “Pinball is tactical, mechanical, and physically labor-intensive (225)”, while video games illicit and emotional response with dopamine being released and actually causing a possibility for addiction; however my father has told me stories of how kids back in the day were definitely addicted to pinball too.
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