I’m at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, where Bill Gates was talking last evening about the future of mobile phones that handle many other functions including video, writing, etc. He referred to these gadgets as — I’m not joking — “Reality Acquisition Devices” that will, if I understood him correctly, be used to connect digitally to various stuff, such as using the phone to read product bar codes to learn more about the product.
Which leads to the following question: What happens when you bring a Reality Acquisition Device into proximity of Steve Jobs’ famous Reality Distortion Field?
on May 31st, 2006 at 9:00 am
Actually, as overblown or splendiferous as the term sounds, there’s definite marketing potential there. I can just imagine a commercial with a bunch of teenagers doing a “Who’s on First?” routine…
Teen A: What’s that PDA thing?
Teen B: Oh, it’s RAD, right?
Teen A: Yeah. Totally! But what is it?
Teen B: It’s a RAD.
etc. etc.
on May 31st, 2006 at 11:31 am
ha! I really got a chuckle from this entry. I wonder why our culture currently has this obsession with the word “reality” (ie. reality TV shows) just when, in many ways, it seems to be so out of touch with reality…It seems that many of our top politicians also have reality distortion fields — that even dropping approval ratings can’t break through!
on Jul 7th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
[…] But the thing is, if I’m going to carry around a “reality acquisition device,” I’d like to to acquire the whole of reality as I experience it, not just the bits that can be captured directly as light waves or sound waves. […]