The first issue ever published of Byte Magazine, visible and available on the Internet Archive at the time of this publication, features a bold claim on the cover: “Computers–the World’s Greatest Toy!” Said issue also dealt with the more mundane issues of choosing the best microprocessor for your home kit, building your own assembler, or using a surplus keyboard. But the core idea behind home computing was definitely hedonistic from day one.
Just like with any other human-made instrument, there are two ways to frame entertainment around computers: either as a creator or, more commonly, as a consumer. The mass-market explosion of home computers in the 1970s and 80s brought wave upon wave of creativity, driven often by programmers fascinated with the emergence of a new medium of expression.
I could have chosen to dive into the history of computer-based entertainment; I could have written about Giorgio Moroder’s first forays into electronic music; about the Utah teapot model of 1975; about Andy Warhol’s portrait of Debbie Harry made on an Amiga computer in 1985; about the first computerized movies, like “Vol Libre” (1980), Tron (1982), “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (also from 1982), “Rendez-vous à Montreal” (1987), or “Tin Toy” (1988). Closer to us, we could talk about “405”, the first “viral” and homemade short movie featuring heavy CGI, released in June 2000, or “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” released in 2001, the first photorealistic computer-generated feature film.
We could, in a more somber tone, discuss how Robin Wright’s character sells all rights to her own digital likeness to a Hollywood studio in the 2013 film “The Congress”, and from that point on, elaborate on the perversity of a society where the boundaries between virtuality and reality are blurred forever. Speaking about Hollywood, we could have mentioned the various (and sometimes frankly hilarious) versions of the Hollywood Operating System. And finally, we should not forget about Bjork’s album-plus-app “Biophilia”, released in 2011 for iOS and on Android in 2013 (back in those days, Android apps took longer to make than their iOS counterparts, you know). And let us not even get started with all the “art” generated through LLMs.
But as interesting as the history of computer-generated entertainment is, none of that is the point of this article. This author would like to start from a different point of view: the fact that he is certainly thankful that you, dear reader, have chosen to read this article (and maybe this whole issue) in its entirety, instead of switching to a more dopamine-inducing trip in your favorite smartphone application.
So yeah, thanks for that.
Now the question is, why are we collectively choosing to drown our brains in such content? Are we being entertained? First, I would like to mention that I am not judging; I am the first to indulge in such vices myself, and with atrocious intensity sometimes.
The answer is simple: we are trying to dive into numbness. We are collectively overwhelmed, and we look for an exit door that does not exist.
Hence, Netflix & chill, TikTok & Instagram, and PlayStation & Xbox; and in between those sessions, we can delegate our email writing and reading to a nearby LLM, which will gladly spit out the same corporate kludge expected by your also-burned-out co-workers.
Gone are the days of reading a good book under the sun or meeting with friends to play a board or a card game all together; our brains have (d)evolved towards a dramatically shorter attention span.
(Speaking about which, we have already discussed chess in this magazine, and attentive readers already know that it was the first game to fall victim to computerization, and in a quite early way for that matter. And since we are on the subject of self-promotion, we have also discussed gaming, another important sub-category of computerized entertainment, and even computer museums, which are other interesting forms of entertainment; you might want to save all those articles for later reading. But, as usual, I digress.)
The problem is not just that entertainment is produced in sweatshop-like conditions, exacerbated by the anti-union feelings that permeate throughout the collective mind of the common programming folk; we also consume entertainment to escape the world around us, filled as it is with uncertainty and despair.
The (let us be honest, mostly right-wing) ruling elites, aware of the state of destruction they are consciously bringing to the world, perennially invite us to shiny new virtual Colosseums where bread and circuses are the norm, to keep us in peace, numb, and quiet… and we accept said invitations, once and again, as an eternal lesson that we avoid learning from, that we repeat ad nauseam.
In a 2023 interview, arguably one of Argentina’s greatest rock stars of all time, Carlos “El Indio” Solari, stated some deep and wonderful ideas about the impact of arts and entertainment in our so-called modern society. In a particular segment, speaking about the 1960s counterculture and rock and roll, the interviewer, Julio Leiva, asks:
Hoy hay lugar para eso desde la música, o la industria copó todo ya?
Yo creo que sí. Yo creo que deberemos aceptar que debe haber algún género que vuelva a reencauzar un pensamiento, porque la música es un gran difusor de ideas, también, no? Y de ideas lo suficientemente ambiguas para que uno no se transforme en un tirano de uno mismo y de los demás, no? Yo creo, sí, que la música hay que usarla para eso. Yo he tenido bandas de combate, no he tenido bandas de entretenimiento. No me parece bueno tener entretenida a la gente mientras le están metiendo la mano en el bolsillo.
(Minute 00:11:10)
This deserves a translation into English:
Is there still room for that in music today, or has the industry already taken over everything?
I think so. I think we have to accept that there needs to be a genre that can redirect our thinking, because music is also a great vehicle for ideas, isn’t it? And ideas that are ambiguous enough so that we don’t become tyrants over ourselves and others, right? I do believe, yes, that music should be used for that. I’ve had protest bands; I haven’t had entertainment bands. I don’t think it’s right to keep people entertained while somebody is reaching into their pockets.
So what can we do? This magazine is filled with ideas. Raise your eyes from the computer or smartphone or TV screen; stop arguing whether Rust or Go or whether Emacs or Vim or whether Mac or Windows. We urge you, reader of these lines, to rediscover the arts; to visit a nearby museum (even if not related to computers); to read a full book of your choice; to care for your burned-out colleague; to sit in front of a cup of coffee with that good old friend you have not met in ages; to spend more “quality time” (what an atrocious moniker, really) with your close family members.
The challenge of entertainment (and, particularly, of the computer-driven kind thereof) is precisely the discovery that we have everything we need in front of us, in the shape of other human beings. Not without irony, we can safely say that the digital world is an invitation to become more analog. Think about that.
Cover photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash.