the best bits of life happen in three dimensions and with all five senses.
Or more. I'm sure there is another dimention or two. Some of them might even be good. Then again... There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone. And I know that's real, I've been through there too many times to count now.
But yeah, In the Realm of the Senses*, it's the only way to live. I worry about everyone cocooned, and informed right up to the split second, and for what? Great, you can carry 3000 songs around with you. Are there really 3000 good songs?** Instant access for everything except reality.
Reality shows demonstrate that a rather large number of people are sufficiently removed from actual life, that actual life has it's own educational and entertainment value. I mean the only people who would find hour after hour after hour of someone else's job fascinating I think are pretty much people who've never worked themselves.
And by, 'removed from actual life', reality and all that, I really mean other people.
I think in our post-electronic age Tim Leary would have to revise Tune in, Turn on, Drop out, to Turn on, tune out, drop out.
I rather fancy the countryside, though we don't call it that. The mountains, the hills, the ocean and desert are all totally unplugged, and pretty savage to those who don't respect them. I go out every month and spend a night on the top of one of the hills around here. I go to the beach whenever I can, even if it's only to just ride along it for a few miles. It give me perspective.
My advice as a skilled technician is that every one of those things has an off switch. You should test it from time to time to make sure it works.
* - Awesome movie, adults only, and remember, the Japanese have a couple of sexual notions that are different. But it has lots of sex and passion, and a huge point about obsession, and it's destructive ability. And it's got subtitles, I love subtitles.
** - You know those game where you pick the 10 records you'd choose if you were on a desert island. I actually tried to figure out once what the real absolute minimum would be for me. How many absolutely essential pieces of music that moved me, spoke to me, that I have to hear for the rest of my life are: I got it down to 25-30.
