Reality is Analogue

It has suddenly dawned upon me just how false a view of reality the digital realm offers. I have seen articles that discuss the resolution of analogue projectors and of even 35mm film, which show that their potential resolution is lightyears ahead of any comparably priced digital equipment. Then we have the constant rush to update this, update that- burning up time and treasure as we do so, often for benefits which may well be very valuable, but are only to be superceeded by newer versions. This can indeed mean buying new software, new cameras, new computers- something we have to go slowly on just to avoid over-spending.

The colours we see on monitors or from digital photography are limited compared not only to reality, but also to film. What we read of on the internet, the perspectives we see are also curtailed in their expression to make for snappy little soundbites or quick and flashy glances. More so, every minute we spend on the internet is one kept distracted from our greater reality- yet we are hooked. I am writing this on the net, just as you, dear reader, are reading it.

In many ways digital technology is of course superior and getting better all the time. Yet it is all aproximations of an analogue world. No ebook can beat the satisfaction of curling up with a good read. No way of note-taking can beat the pen in the notepad- indelibly printed, not subject to umpteen whims. The same problem of seeming disposability effects this writing as it does my digital photography. It is all to easy to edit- so where and when does meaning really begin or end? When must I say a final statement, even a temporarily final one? There is no finality, just an endless stream of words with a constant ability to seek recourse through editting. Things can be erased without apparent traces, whilst paper must be burnt or hidden- it has a real existance in a real world, despite holding the abstraction of words. This article, by contrast, has a virtual existance in a virtual world, leaving only digital traces once I delete anything.

Of course, once printed or viewed, it enters the analogue realm of reality- a reality in which values and actions have very real existance... yet here I must needs digress, as the reality of such existance is called into doubt by my philosophically-digital perspective. Might reality, as we experience it, share in such approximations of ultimate solidity- might it not have an effervescence of it's own? Might what we see with our eyes often be an illusion holding a greater truth within? Might a highly esteemed virual, internet reality get a value of it's own simply from the commonly-shared admiration of it?

Such thoughts can be entertained here, yet at the end of the day, relaity is warm, breathing and analogue and the digitised representations of this are by their very nature limited and limiting, though due to the nature of technology possibly more satisfying reproductions of it than most analogue attepts, which were comparativey clumsy. We can here draw at least a preliminary conclusion of what to reember, lest we forget-

1) Reality is analogue- that is, essentially soft and warm.
2) The digital realm is a reminder, a pointer and an often artistic representation of this, but is not to be confused with it, however strong the essentially escapist inclination to do so might be.
3) Digital technologies may be impressive, but they are as a whole less developed than their analogue ancestors and cousins, less satisfying. The ease of digital does not make it a substitute yet for the refined nature of the best films, and paintings, so rich with the personality of their creator, have yet to be satisfactorially rendered in the digital realm, though we are certainly working on it!

Real words and real feelings have true value. Now that the world has the leader it wanted- in Barak Obama's symbolic perfection if not in personal attributes as such- we are free from many a dream lain over us. I feel we are entering a new level of understanding, where we connect more fully with our past.

Starfire