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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1997)
I f J.J. j | HARDER Jetson into the 21st century Long live the technological revolution Scientific. French. Industrial. American. What do all of these words have in common? They all describe revolutions that have occurred in our world's history. Massive changes have taken place in the past and will continue to take place in the future. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to add another revolution to the list. If you haven’t already noticed, we are in the middle of a technological revolution. It all started back with the discovery of waves that have enlightened us with such marvels as TVs, VCRs, stereos and satellites. Don’t forget about the invention of computers — first the size of entire rooms, now in calculators, PCs and everywhere we turn our heads. Add in a little fiber optics for the infor mation superhighway, and we have the fastest growing industry in the world. Mini-satellite dishes on our cars, movies available through cable whenever we want: complete madness! George and Judy Jetson in real life! Cats and dogs living together — mass hysteria! All of this and more will soon be possible, because of, fa-the most part, two main inventions: HDTV and the DVD. If you haven’t heard already, everything is becoming digital: audio, video, air waves, computers and more. Why? Because the digital quality puts the old analog recording and transmission to shame. Now we can listen to digital music, view digital video in theaters and talk on digital cellular phones, but we cannot view and record digital movies and broadcasts at home. Enter HDTV. High-definition television provides twice the scanning lines of present TV, producing superb resolution along with CD quality sound. Add a more theater-like screen size and surround sound capability and today’s TV is scrap metal. It is extremely expen sive to go digital, but satellite systems as well as free broadcasting companies feel that the benefits will outweigh the costs in the long run. So we’ll be able to view and hear digital video and sound, but can’t we record this? The answer eventually is yes, care of the digital video disc, or DVD. This 5-inch mammoth will have up to 12 times the capacity of a compact disc and like a CD-ROM will have video and information storage capability. Not only can you watch movies on the disc, but you can edit them to your precise, personal taste: PG to R ratings, different endings or you can star in your favorite flick. It is also like laser disc, in that you can store interactive educational information on it and skip to certain points with the touch of a button. (No more rewinding!) Laser disc will become the Beta of the 21 st century courtesy of this beast. However, unlike previous Matt Haney/DN technological breakthroughs, the DVD will allow for backward compatibility. In other words, DVD players will also play CDs and CD ROMs, so don’t throw away your copy of Vanilla Ice’s “To the Extreme” just yet. We’ve come a long way from Morse code and the phonograph, through the days of vinyl and eight tracks and have arrived today at a juncture that will allow us to go places with media that many never would have imagined. HDTV and DVD are just two of the thousands of advancements that will let the rest of our lives become more and more like the Jetsons — maybe even better. Harder is a sophomore broad casting major and a Daily Nebras kan columnist. brent POPE Send in the clones! Cool breakthroughs, ideas on duplication Holy multiplicity, Batman! Unless you’ve been at Marine boot camp with Riddick (Big Wussy) Bowe, you probably know by now that scientists in Great Britain have managed to clone a sheep, and before the turn of the century, I might add. Who would have thunk it? Not me, even though I did write a list of things that I wanted to clone back in junior high (Dr Pepper, Suzanne Sommers, Def Leppard). But those were the innocent years, the good old years, when my biggest worry was whether Winnie Cooper liked me, or liked me liked me. (Whaaat would you do, if I sang out of tune?...) But now that I’m all grown up and genetic duplication is actually within reach, I can’t help wondering if this is good or bad. Maybe it’s one of those things you just need to work through. Let’s do a little point/ counterpoint scenario and see what we come up with, shall we? POINT: With clones, there would be no need for the military. We could just clone an army of Kathie Lee Giffords. They would enter any battle and immediately annoy the opposition into submission. COUNTERPOINT: Other countries would clone their nation’s equivalent of Kathie Lee Gifford. How would you like the last thing you see to be a regiment of skinny women coming at you screaming “Ach! Hoeren Sie, Reeg! Cody ist meine Lieblingsstreudel! Afi ihn! A13 ihn!”? (Loose translation: Yo! Listen up, Reeg! Cody is my favorite little strudel! Hat him! Eat him!) POINT: Evetyone could theoreti cally be with the person they desire the most. There would be no need to settle for anyone less than your absolute heart’s desire. You’d just have to work up the nerve to say, “Hey, I know you’re dating some one, but do you mind if I get a sample of your DNA so I can make a copy of you?” COUNTERPOINT: Some rich playboy with a super slick name like Dick Mercury or Johnny Getsalot would probably duplicate himself a bunch of times just so there would be more of him to go around. POINT: It would solve a big problem in my life, which is this: I hate it when I go out to eat and the person I’m dining with gets a larger, better prepared or tastier portion of food than mine. They can duplicate animals, so why not food? This way everyone gets the exact same meal. COUNTERPOINT Cloning would also allow restaurant owners to duplicate their best and probably most annoying servo*. Imagine hearing this every time you finish your meal: “Who’s ready for dessert? You’re full? Oh, you can’t be full. Doesn’t some pie sound just scrumdillyicious? How about a slice? No? Well how about some cake? Doesn’t some cakey-wakey sound goody-woody?” Aakon Stkckelbekg/DN Maybe to solve this problem I should just clone myself so I could argue both sides of this issue evenly. But I bet once my duplicate arrives and I find out how annoying I am, I’ll be against it. And since my clone wouldn't be alive without cloning, 1 think he would be for it. No matter what you think of cloning, you must admit that the new products created by this scientific breakthrough would be interesting to see. Dessert lovers could happily lick away on ice cream clones. People who can ’t make it to New York will visit Cloney Island. And people who loved Macaulay Culkin before his voice changed can see a brand new film starring his genetic twin; “Home Aclone.” (You gotta love progress.) 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