Person of the Year: Me
Okay, all of us. See Time's Person of the Year. And here's 1982. It took a long time, but I think it was you all along.
Update: I recently emerged into the "real world," and discovered the cover is a mirror. Very clever, but it raises the question—when will screens be able to display reflective metals, and not just colors?
Update: I recently emerged into the "real world," and discovered the cover is a mirror. Very clever, but it raises the question—when will screens be able to display reflective metals, and not just colors?
posted by Tim at 9:59 PM
4 Comments:
Information Age! That is so 1998.
It's an interesting article but the nomination is a cop-out.
How about Al Gore as the person of the year? He launched An Inconvenient Truth and encouraged citizens worldwide to take notice.
As a result, governments in countries like the US and Australia have been forced to acknowledge climate change is an issue, and include it on their political agenda.
You, the person of the year:
Definitely cop-out Time.
I think the rise of "user generated content" and Al Gore (or Kim Jong Il, etc.) are in different buckets. magine projecting this back in time. When does "the printing press" get the "Machine of the Year"? Not when it came out, but when it started to gather momentum. At some point, if you want it to have a cover, you have to decide to bump Vasco de Gamma or Mehmet the Conqueror, right?
To keep things french, Time has skipped between these two models, but done more politicians than "things", eg.
1980 Reagan
1981 Lech Walesa
1982 The Computer
1983 Reagan and Yuri Andropov [heh!]
1984 Peter Uberoth
1985 Deng Xiaoping
1986 Corazon Aquino
1987 Gorbachev
1988 Earth (Planet of the Year)
1989 Gorbachev
And sometimes they choose a person to represent a trend, like Jeff Bezos in 1999.
It seems to me that the rise of user-generated content is of historic importance. Blogs and amateur video is changing media and culture very significantly. It may not be the printing press, but it might be TV. And it may not be the fall of Communism, but I think 20 years hence it'll look a heck of a lot more important than Peter Uberoth looks now.
I think you would be suprised at how little effect Al Gore has had on world opinion of Climate Change Amanda. Though I Am happy to take your word that he was pivotal in THe united States,
Wow ... "The Computer Moves In" in 1982 ... I guess I was ahead of the curve with the Timex/Sinclair ZX-81 the year before!
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