borrowed time

[sab]

In jPod, Cowboy is talking to Alistair, a video game programmer who was in isolation since a video game he designed in 2001 was based on a flight simulator that had jet planes crashing into buildings. Naturally in 2001 they pulled the game, and brought in Allistair, who's been in detention ever since.

They let him out years later, and he's talking to Cowboy, jPod's current programmer. Allistair asks something like, "what's the world been like, since 9/11?"

Cowboy says, "well, there's a perpetual sense of fear that we never had before, combined with the sudden realization that nobody's really in charge."

And I think there's an interesting part of that that's true. I have this suspicion -- particularly since that attack on the United States came quite close to the beginning of this millennium -- that we all sort of feel like we're living on borrowed time. 2008? 2010? These aren't real years -- we can't possibly be living here, in the future.

It's like we got to the end of Civ III and all our ships went out into space. Scary, no?

*

This post brought to you by what can only be explained as post-Remix depression.

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

we all sort of feel like we're living on borrowed time. 2008? 2010? These aren't real years -- we can't possibly be living here, in the future.

It's like we got to the end of Civ III and all our ships went out into space. Scary, no?

That is a really interesting insight and excellent (and scary) metaphor. That part of CivIII where the ships have already gone out into space, so it really doesn't matter what you do to earth, all the points have already been allocated...

[annakovsky.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhh the end of Civ III. Totally.

I keep thinking that the 2000s will start sounding like real years at some point... but here we are, 8 years in, and they still don't. Bizarre.

[waverly.livejournal.com]

So that's not just me!

[faith-girl222.livejournal.com]

i agree. i'd go even further to say that i often still feel that way about 2001 - it was supposed to be the future, how is it already the past?

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

Excellent--depressing--post.

My love for Douglas Coupland cannot be textually rendered, but I haven't seen jPod yet--I keep meaning to acquire it but I've been too busy lately. And now I hear it's canceled. Bah.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

I don't feel that way about the post-2001 years (re: fear, living in the future, &c.), and kind of have to squint to see it. But I don't understand America's collective reaction to 9/11, so I freely admit I'm an outlier in this instance.

I will admit to suspecting a massive societal collapse within a generation or two, however. Whether it's worldwide or just US-based with ripples is yet to be seen.