The Customer walked into the office
and dropped a small disc onto the Representative’s desk. The latter stared at it, then up at the
Customer.
“What the blazes is this?” she asked.
“It’s a CD-ROM,” the Customer
replied as she sat down uninvited on the only other chair in the room. “I found it with a VHS tape that I had
completely forgotten about, and it’s got a whole bunch of extra features from
the movie I want to see but can’t because it won’t fit on my laptop’s disc
drive. Or any computer’s disc
drive. That’s where you come in.”
The Representative gingerly picked
up the disc. “First off, how old is
this?”
“Um….” The Customer looked up at the
ceiling momentarily. “It’s about 17
years.”
The Representative would have done a
spit-take if her coffee had been handy: “Seventeen years?! Not days, not months, not even quarters?”
“No, years – the movie’s held
up pretty well, both in content and in format, but I still can’t believe it’s
been around long enough that babies who were born then are now graduating high
school.”
“Yes, but really, 17 years?! In the world of tech, you might as well have
said ‘1776’!”
“C’mon, it’s not that old –
it was made in this century, for crying out loud!”
“Same century, yes; same decade,
no.” The Representative tossed the disc
back at the Customer, who let it land on the desk uncaught. “At the rates things move, I’m surprised DVDs
and Blu-rays are still hanging around!”
“They wouldn’t be? I just finished changing over all of my
tapes!”
“I’m not even going there. Look,” the Representative said as she inched
her chair closer to the desk; the Customer reflexively leaned in. “New stuff’s being made every day, and the
more you try to keep up the more gets left behind. I mean, look at the 1900s: everyone was just
getting used to the car when all of a sudden they could fly in the comfort of
an armchair! Could you imagine telling
people from the beginning of that century that before they hit the next
one they could instantaneously speak with someone on the other side of the
planet as easy as if they were talking to someone in the next room? Or that the plays they watched in the theater
could be viewed in their own homes, repeatedly, with magical effects and
surround sound?”
“I think if you told them all that
they would have locked you in the attic.”
“You’re missing the point: if you
have a piece of tech now, you’d better use it now because as sure as
you’re sitting here, it’s going to become inaccessible in less than five
years. And I’m being generous in that
estimate: two years is probably more accurate.”
“Oh.” The Customer picked up the disc to stare at
it. “So I’ll never get to see the extra
features?”
“Just go buy the DVD before that’s
gone!”
“It won’t have the same features and
you know it!”
“Fine.” The Representative rummaged through a drawer
and pulled out a small drive with cables that she then dropped onto the
desk. “Here.”
“What’s this supposed to be?”
“A CD-ROM adapter. You plug it into your computer and pop the
disc in. It’s yours for $19.95, plus
tax.”
“Why didn’t you just give me this in
the first place?!”
“You needed to be taught a lesson on
the evanescence of life.”
