Friday, May 29, 2009

Let's do the Time Warp Again

Liz and I turned on her old laptop today: the one she used for four years in college. Its homepage was set to oberlin.edu.

It was as if some part of Liz, some part of both of us had been made static - frozen in time - waiting for years to start again. When we started up the computer again, it reached out for the things that we had taught it to reach for years ago, tried to re-establish connections that didn't exist anymore. Both the people who set the homepage and the website itself have moved on. None of the connections and applications on this machine are relevant.

I think, then, how sad it would be to travel in time. Even if we travel to a foreign country, we still have some few things in common with the people there: a knowledge that, despite any differences, we are still citizens of the same world. We exist in the same vast space, and are capable of reaching each other with an appropirate amount of time and effort.

Imagine, though, that you have suddenly been dropped into the ancient roman Empire. Not only are you seperated from their language (who alive could understand spoken Imperial Latin?) but their entire culture would be alien to you. Even if you had made a study of the Roman Empire, for every custom or turn of phrase you've learned, there are a thousand lost forever in the whispers of time. You have almost nothing in common with these people: their lives are short, they know hardships we cannot fathom, and they worship strange and violent gods. Where is your common ground? How could you ever connect?

This computer is old. I love it. I remember the desktop screen. I remember the icons, the programs, the itunes music. I'm going to enjoy using it.

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