Dear Mr. Pynchon,

I am gleeful to hear that your building of a time machine went splendidly! I am even more amazed that you were able to utilize it, return in one piece (I think), and come back to write of the near future. See, at first, I did not believe it, but I now know that you have done it. You tried to keep it a secret, but I figured it out. Now, as this is an amazing technology, you should share it with the world. Put your invention out there and let everyone know! But alas, you seem content to keep it to yourself. 

Anyways, I am glad that your inventing went well and that you were able to so well utilize this tool. I look forward to seeing you in the near… future.

Sincerely,

Cole Jackson, 1984

 

I’m sure those of you who read that are sitting there going, “What was that???”. Now to explain! When Pynchon wrote this review, it was 1984. Computers looked like this, http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01244/appleimac1984_1244597i.jpg. Companies were touting chips that held 1MB. ARPANET still existed. The User Interface had just been developed. 

I say that Pynchon had successfully built a time machine because his look to the future in the end of his article is amazingly accurate. He says, “With the proper deployment of budget and computer time, we will cure cancer, save ourselves from nuclear extinction, grow food for everybody, detoxify the results of industrial greed gone berserk — realize all the wistful pipe dreams of our days” (Pynchon 4). Go through that as a checklist.

We will cure cancer: Major advances in the field.

Save ourselves from nuclear extinction: Not quite there, but much more realistic take on information and the controversy.

Grow food for everybody: A lot more people are being fed now.

Now, obviously, Pynchon was not making a prophecy that we would have this all done by September, 2013. But, we are many times closer than we were in 1984. And he knew that through the use of computers we would better ourselves. 

Another point that he makes is that, “Luddites can be charmed into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead” (Pynchon 4). Word for word, this is what we discussed on Wednesday. Edward Snowden made an attempt to break down huge parts of the government for the good of the people. Did he go and blow up a building? No. He pushed a few buttons. Hackers are the modern Luddite, sitting behind a screen, slowly tearing down the things that they find detrimental. 

Hacking is generally thought of as a small, and uneffective clique. but data shows otherwise. http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/worlds-biggest-data-breaches-hacks/

Pynchon’s idea of the future is very accurate in most regards. He knows that we will have progressed with computers, and make substantial changes to the nature of being a Luddite. Pynchon says, “the deepest Luddite hope of miracle has now come to reside in the computer’s ability to get the right data to those whom the data will do the most good” (Pynchon 4). *CoughSnowdencough*. 

See, the time machine did work.