Techno, not chess.

I was planning to write about chess, and relate it to Magic, and how playing any game and playing it well and finding the underlying stratedgies will help you in every other game (or learning how to spell strategy properly), but instead I'm outside because it's annoying inside, and I can. Instead; technology.

I'm seated outside on a lovely cool night, not minding the mozzie bites because they beat the incessant drill of the TV into my brain, and obviously I avoid the peat bog like conditions of being inside. The internet I'm using is being screamed in to my computer by a wireless router, who in turn is getting it from I don't know where. The very first computers took up entire rooms and those who worked on it predicted they'd just get bigger. Now they've just announced that they can get a byte of information down to about 96 single atoms.

If the internet connection were to break, I could activate the bluetooth on my phone, connect THAT to the internet, and keep right on going. The amazing part is my niece and nephew wont care, wont be able to care, because to them it was always a part a life, simple and granted.

I remember hearing about the days of black and white TV, and how people would tape strips of coloured celophane to their TV and kid that they had colour TV. Now we've got whatever TV they ever played on youtube, or isohunt.com, the myriad of jungles of information out there that are so uncategorised and "oversold" as to cause a hyper active attention system in any daily user, thus shrinking their ability to focus, pay attention and ultimately think clearly.

So I love still reading books, and I enjoy sleeping with the battery pulled out of my phone. Try telling me anything THEN, facebook/twitter/internet. Of course, the battle isn't won! It kicks up again when I think of my dearest, and that I want to hear from her, talk to her, communicate. She's not that far away, phone or computer. Or telephone, the old fashioned thing with the "wireless"ness but it's never as impressive because it's not a network.

I can relate this back to Magic, actually. Back in the days, the early days, the days before even I knew what a "Standard tournament" meant, there were 4/5s. And they were HUGE. Bigger than your 15/15s of today, oh my yes. They could be blocked by two creatures and KILL THEM BOTH. They were easily worth 7 mana for the size alone.

The comparison is pretty simple. As Magic got older and evolved, the card pool expanded. Much like technology. As both got better, so did the users and the regulators, sort of like creatures and kill spells. Now a 2/2 who can't be shot and makes a 4/4 co-attacker is worth only 3 mana! Back in the day I remember playing a 1/1 who tapped for Red mana and was red itself. Whoever heard or red acceleration?

Eitherway, the minor funk this technology shock creates comes from the idea that if you tell anyone "Hey, technology wasn't always this good" they'll just say "But yes, it is right now and who cares and let's watch stupid cat videos all over the internet all night." I don't really hear the "thanks" there, and I can't personally tell you anything about anyone who worked on getting the internet to being a real thing, apart from Al Gore, and I only know he had it set up at the white house years before the public found out about it. And I'm not even sure how accurate that information is.

So, I guess, I'm taking it for granted that this amazing new technology will be taken for granted by most, and no thanks really awarded to whoever made it. Companies make money off the internet, not whoever created it. Perhaps the same became of whoever thought of the Letter, but it all stands true.

So next time you cast your 6/6 for 4CC and get a really nifty bonus anyway, just remember the brave souls who went before you, and thought a 4/5 was really big and a great deal for only 7 mana.

Fox Murdoch.