The Opposite of Shopping

In celebration of having skipped the shopping hell of post-Thanksgiving Friday, I caught up on some tech articles, trying unsystematically to find someone who doesn�t like their iPad as much as I don�t like mine. I ran into David Pogue�s piece about what he�s learned in 10 years of writing his �State of the Art� technology products column for the New York Times. Focusing mostly on products related information technology, towards which universities feel a fatherly pride, Pogue makes two points worth remembering. First,

Things don�t replace things; they just splinter. I can�t tell you how exhausting it is to keep hearing pundits say that some product is the �iPhone killer� or the �Kindle killer.� Listen, dudes: the history of consumer tech is branching, not replacing.

TV was supposed to kill radio. The DVD was supposed to kill the Cineplex. Instant coffee was supposed to replace fresh-brewed.

But here�s the thing: it never happens. You want to know what the future holds? O.K., here you go: there will be both iPhones and Android phones. There will be both satellite radio and AM/FM. There will be both printed books and e-books. Things don�t replace things; they just add on.

This has obvious implications for the relationship among the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences: fund them as though they were related branches, not as though some were replacing others.

Second, there's this:

Forget about forever � nothing lasts a year. Of the thousands of products I�ve reviewed in 10 years, only a handful are still on the market.

Oh, you can find some gadgets whose descendants are still around: iPod, BlackBerry, Internet Explorer and so on. But it�s mind-frying to contemplate the milions of dollars and person-years that were spend on products and services that now fill the Great Tech Graveyard: Olympus M-Robe. PocketPC. Smart Display. MicroMV. MSN Explorer. . 

Everybody knows that�s the way tech goes. The trick is to accept your gadget�s obsolescence at the time you buy it, so you feel no sense of loss when it�s discontinued next fall.

Much technology comes from university research -- though not as much as we often assume, as three-quarters of R&D by dollars spent takes place in for-profit companies. But technology's commercial cycles are the opposite of what we�re trying to do around here, in a university. We�re creating permanent knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills continuously evolve, but from activities focused on things that last.

Belated happy thanksgiving wishes to all.