Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« A Word On Haiti: Politics of the St… | Build the Streetcar on 12th Avenue… »

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

??!! 2010: The Future Is Now

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 11:15 AM

hobbes8calvin / Stranger Flickr
Happy Year of the Robot!

With all due respect to Mr. Golob, the main way that 2010 feels like the future is the numeral itself. One only needs to look at it—2010—to know that it is a year by and for robots.

Other years of late have been oddities, but not in the same way. 2000: We were all bountifully prepared for that one by novelty New Year's Eve glasses and Y2K panic*. 2001: Looks weird, absolutely, but the movie embedded it in our minds long ago. All the rest of the ought-oughts were just variations on 2001, visually and psychologically speaking.

But 2010! It does not even look like a year. It will never not feel weird to write it. It is not binary, yet it looks more binary than any year yet. TWO OH ONE OH.

* Invented, I am convinced, by tech guys everywhere, who laughed their way to the bank while looking at online porn and playing video games—not that different from what they do every day, just on a grander scale. And kudos to you, gentlemen, for that.

Comments (12) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I stopped looking at porn and playing video games for this? Damn, I guess I should get back to work.

Posted by 1337 h4x0r on January 13, 2010 at 11:30 AM

I seem to be one of the few who have been saying "twenty-oh-five" or "twenty-oh-six" and so forth this past decade. I now am pushing others to say "twenty-ten" instead of the cumbersome "two thousand ten" or, evey worse, "two thousand and ten". I agree - the future is now so move away from those "two thousands".

Posted by Jaymz on January 13, 2010 at 11:37 AM

I'm sorry you believe that about Y2K. Many thousands of people all over the world worked really hard updating or replacing millions of boring but essential things like gas pipeline valves to make that transition a smooth one. Not all computers -- not even MOST computers -- sit on people's desks.

Posted by Fnarf

on January 13, 2010 at 11:38 AM

campaigning for "oh ten".

Posted by josh

on January 13, 2010 at 11:49 AM

Its a year that looks like a motor weight for oil.

I'll take the synthetic 20-10, Mr. Jiffy Lube mechanic...

Posted by Castrol GT on January 13, 2010 at 11:58 AM

Naw, you want to go with at least 10WD30.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on January 13, 2010 at 12:08 PM

That was rather Mudede-esque.

Posted by rob!

on January 13, 2010 at 12:10 PM

6 and 5:
what are you talking cars for? this is the primo SavageConstantHolden engine. Weed and the ABCs of milk and cookies (munchies!!) is what runs this puttputt. Yet I am surprised with the little amount of oil this "new" '98 thing I'm driving these days USES.
2002 is a saras palindrome?

Posted by dnt trust me on January 13, 2010 at 12:19 PM

Me, I'm waiting for the next World War. That should be along in 4-5 years, most likely sparked by some internecine conflict in either the Balkans or the Middle East - as always.

Posted by Will in Seattle