OK Computer and Average Architecture

I still remember when Radiohead’s third studio album took the rock music scene by storm. A diverse take from their previous album, The Bends, which tastes a lot like Britpop-genre flavor—I’m sorry, since we’re talking about a British band, flavour— containing singles that are more radio-friendly, and already proven more popular. Sure, it added variety to the mainstream music, but instead of continuing the formula, the band decided they would grind their musical gear and produce something far bolder. Appropriately titled OK Computer, it experimented on sounds and thematic effects on a whole different level, combining intrepid guitar riffs with an orgy of xylophones, mellotrone, synthesizers, digitally mixed samples, basically pushing the boundaries of instrumental madness, engulf them in rich lyrical masterpieces. Every track on the album flows with such coherence, that each transition takes you to another step in this journey to the center of the universe. Some may describe this as a concept album, but I recall an interview where Thom (vocalist) didn’t think of it as such.

Now, I'm not here to do a full-on review of said album, but I gotta say that... because it was released in 1997, just two years after I was born, the first sentence of the previous paragraph is questionable. I just wanted an excuse to praise one of my (and possibly a lot of people’s) favorite albums of all time. I particularly like the fact that this album was released in the 90s and grazed the topic of technology, which was kind of ahead of its time.

A few months ago, my class watched a documentary movie about the internet. We’ve seen a lot of ‘internet movies’, right? Hackers, security breaches, furious typing and coding sessions. But it was not that exciting. Emphasizing the documentary part, it was made exactly in 1990, when internet was not as widespread as the present. I forgot the title (and my former classmates forgot too, all 40 of them holy shit), but I remember what was in the movie: a group of computer scientists describing how the internet is going to change our lives in the 20 years’ time, and actors’ enactment of people’s daily lives using the internet.

They explained how it would be very practical in the future; if you want to go to a romantic getaway with your partner you can just book tickets via internet. At this explanation the two supposedly couple acts were relaxing in a backyard garden of a castle-like building, sitting on rattan outdoor chairs as the man was sliding his index finger on a touchscreen monitor, on a small table between them, showing a picture of Eiffel tower – which I assume where they wanted to book a travel ticket to. The monitor wasn’t attached to any devices like computer or TV, as if it’s inherently part of the table.

Another scene illustrated a family gathering in a living room with the individual sofas facing a mere blank wall, and as the father adjusted the control panel, the whole wall turned into a television screen. This is just a greenscreen technique any YT content creator can make nowadays, but back in the days it might be a tad impressive to have in your house. After all, we still get adverts for huge flat-screen TVs even though there hasn’t been one as large as your living room’s wall. There was also one scene on robotic innovation, where they tried making a robot as human as possible, giving it a skin face, a name, and programming conversations for it. Nowadays, no engineer nametags necessary to access it in a restricted lab; you can easily find it in a YT creator’s “Let’s Play”. There's a lot on Eviebot years ago already.

My point is, as someone who’s grown up in an analog-to-digital environment transition, it’s fascinating to see how people in the 90s tried to predict how technology, in particular the internet, would develop the future – which is to say, now. What I found most interesting is, even though the scientists’ predictions are mostly true – things are far more practical, connectivity at the touch of your fingertips, artificial intelligence closing in to human’s – it’s the miscellaneous things that set the decades apart. It’s the website interface, the interior design, the cybernetic algorithm, the camera works, and the economic and social implication of technology.

I mentioned about the rattan furniture in the documentary, because I felt it was a little out of place and old-fashioned in the face of a touchscreen era. Sure, we could easily go to a website (or even mobile app) to order a plane ticket fast now, but it would be via a desktop computer or a smartphone, not a darn wooden endtable in the backyard. The wall-into-cinema screen façade? Basically home theater, with outdated leather sofa. Now that I think about it, I don’t see a lot of present day families who gather around a television for a scheduled show, since everyone in the household can get their own devices and watch everything on-demand. This may be one of the social implications the documentary failed to predict (or just didn’t want to). It reminds me of the viral video of a family demonstrating how to use the internet.

It's amazing to see the technical aspects in technology progress, and the little accompanying things evolving around with it. We used to have a large desktop computer in our house, with fat CRT monitors and CPU that still has diskette slot in it, no bluetooth, no internet. I think I remember playing The Sims 2 in it, but it was near before said computer was retired and we switched to a laptop. Right now, no current desktop computer comes without internet and bluetooth hardware (unless it’s for business purpose I guess). CD drive was still a requirement because USB drives used to have 128 MB capacity, not 128 GB.

I remember when communication was done only through phone call or text in a sliding feature phone; I got to call my mother with prepaid balance, counted per every second I talk. Now, I can video call via internet with my whole family on my touchscreen smartphone all at once, using mobile data costing me far cheaper than the voice call used to. Economy!

Even when I got my first Android phone, touchscreen I might add, mobile internet wasn’t as pervasive. I still mainly used text for communication, and multimedia messages were fairly hard to send because the provider didn’t really support it without another subscription first. If you wanted to surf the internet, you browse in a computer, and connect LAN cable because WiFi hotspots were also scarce. Somehow, though, it didn’t stop my (mainly male) classmates from competing in online games. I, on the other hand, competed with strangers in an all-text internet forum debate (I’m glad they shut down my Yahoo! Answers account). Now internet webpages use more interactive elements instead of just a wall of text (like this blog; wow am I old fashioned).

I don’t think any of the scientists in the documentary could ever predict how massive social networks would grow up to be. I mean, it’s one thing to say that we’re going to be easily connected to people from all around the world but it’s another thing to forecast the sheer influence of a single internet persona that it transcends the supposedly virtual platform. To be fair, he has been a contributor in the platform for quite a long time, so it’s kind of justified. YT had been widely known as a video-sharing website ever since I was in junior high, and it’s still dominating. But of course, things change; the community expands, the website format evolves to simpler, modern interface, contents massively grow, and… well, the privacy policy changes. So if you’re a late aspiring YT content creator (like me), you should probably check thoroughly, because your lipsyncing video might get a copyright strike.

The internet… it’s a strange thing. It’s like a fertile soil you can plant your seeds in, if you decide to carefully nurture it. Online business flourishes, online community grows, and online influence escalates. During my freshman year, I had to walk or hitch a ride from my friend if I had to go home past 8 PM because it’s the most economically feasible route. After two years of staying in a boarding house, I had to move because I wanted a location more accessible to my campus, especially one I could walk home to at night. Now, online bike rides are available 24 hours (at least in the central part of this city), safer and (relatively) cheap. If it was a thing when I was a freshman, I would probably never had moved. This business had only been widely known in over the course of three years, and it already advanced so much it’s established its status as a unicorn startup. Business!

In retrospect, I just want to say that it’s been exhilarating to experience this shift, this lifestyle transformation, for better or worse. To see something that once was deemed so alien and restricted, becoming an extensive part of our daily life that we just undergo without second thought. When we’re waiting in a queue, we could always pull out our smartphones and immerse ourselves in a whole different, yet adjacent world. It’s polarizing, but it’s here. The soil just keeps on fertilizing.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying. It’s an alien life form.” - David Bowie predicting the internet in 1999.