Friday Fun: 5 Reasons The Future Will Be Ruled By B.S.

Oh, Cracked, you are so funny. So funny it just really hurts sometimes. And these so definitely apply to the pickle that libraries and other cultural/content institutions and industries find themselves in as we try and find our place in a future that is very different from the past.

5 Reasons The Future Will Be Ruled By B.S.

  • A Star Trek-Style Utopia is Already Here ... Sort Of
  • To Stay Afloat, Businesses Have to Pretend Unlimited Goods are Limited

    To keep all that stuff up and running, the publisher is resorting to what experts call FARTS--Forced ARTificial Scarcity. Or they would call it that, if they were as awesome at naming things as I am.

    Mark my words: The future will be ruled by FARTS.

    Remember the debut of Sony's futuristic Matrix-style virtual world, PlayStation Home? There was a striking moment when the guys at Penny Arcade logged in and found themselves in a virtual bowling alley... standing in line. Waiting for a lane to open up. In a virtual world where the bowling alley didn't actually exist. It's all just ones and zeros on a server--the bowling lanes should be effectively infinite, but where there should have been thousands of lanes for anybody who wanted one, there was only FARTS.

  • Arbitrary Restriction of Goods Is the Future
  • The Future Will Turn Us All Into Lars Ulrich
  • Only Bullshit Will Save Civilization

Don't forget to read the whole thing!

By the way, as I noted on Twitter, every single presentation and article on THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES from this moment onwards should be entitled ONLY BULLSHIT WILL SAVE CIVILIZATION.

(via @janeschmidt)

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