I had an amazing time playing the "Doraemon X" game! It's such a fun experience, packed with exciting features. The vibrant graphics and interactive environments really bring the world of Doraemon to life. I loved using the various gadgets, which added a unique twist to the gameplay. The quests are engaging and full of challenges that kept me hooked. Plus, playing with friends made it even more enjoyable! Overall, it’s a delightful game that perfectly captures the charm of the series while offering plenty of adventure. Highly recommended!
To Sleep, Perchance To Dream
Wow! The future! But some things haven’t changed. For starters, fierce debates still rage in the audio/video community. Remember vacuum tubes versus solid state? VHS versus Betamax? CRT versus LCD? The analog versus digital brouhaha? Well, now we have a new squabble on our hands - the question of ears/eyes/brain. Allow me to explain.
Alert readers will recall that in 2024, researchers demonstrated that a neural implant could enable direct communication between the human brain and the outside world. For example, subjects could control a cursor on a computer screen simply by using their thoughts. Subsequent development expanded the applications. Soon, literally, the blind could see and the deaf could hear.
By the turn of the 22nd century, thanks to the brain-implant kiosks conveniently located in every Costco, almost everyone has a neural implant, facilitating and improving on their interactions with the world around them. For example, most readers don’t actually “read” this 2124 issue of Sound & Vision. Rather, the magazine’s content is simply flashed into their brains, and – presto! That’s a real advantage over the tedious page-turning and screen-swiping of yesteryear. Good riddance. It’s as if we’re all waking up from a bad dream. But I digress.
The important matter at hand is the latest audiophile/videophile kerfuffle.
One camp, the Luddites, prefers to listen to music and watch television using their ears and eyes – you know, the old-fashioned way. And, I should hasten to add that a century of advancement has made audio transducers and video displays pretty darn good – a far cry from the junk they foisted on us in 2024.
The opposing camp, the Brainiacs, prefers to be entertained via their implants. It obviates the need for bulky hardware like loudspeakers and televisions because it’s a direct source-to-brain link. You know how headphones give you that “music inside my head” feeling? This is the same, but minus the headphones, and the ears. More important is the stupendously good sound and video quality.
Let’s face it, our ears and eyes have limitations. We’re not all blessed with hear-a-pin-drop hearing, and 20/20 fighter-pilot vision. Throw in unfortunate genetic oopsies like color blindness (particularly common in males) and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, that is, the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, start to add up. And, let’s concede that our hearing and vision don’t exactly improve with age.
A source-to-brain pathway bypasses those troublesome flesh and blood organs and mainlines the good stuff right into the ole noggin. Even if you are young and blessed with pin-drop hearing and fighter-pilot vision, this is far, far better – delivering the highest possible fidelity and acuity that your brain can process. The improvement in the things you hear and see is mind blowing.
Surprisingly, in 2124, some people still insist on using their ears and eyes. Why? For the same reason that some old timers prefer driving their cars instead of having their cars drive them. And a few fossils even prefer to manually shift their own gears instead of having the transmission shift for them. And, in the same way that 19th century textile workers raged against industrialization, sabotaging or destroying automated machinery, this ears/eyes/brain clash can get pretty intense. Well, not as bad as the LP versus CD bloodbath, but still pretty bad.
The debate boils down to a purity test. A live performance of a symphony orchestra in a concert hall is a pure experience. But my cheap seat, poor hall acoustics, or plugged ears limit the experience. A technically excellent recording played over a good sound system might improve things. But a direct-to-brain experience, although the least pure, provides quality that far surpasses the other two. So what do you want? Purity or quality?
Of course, this ears/eyes/brain question pulls us right down the rabbit hole. The information conveyed through sound and light waves only becomes consequential when reconstituted as brain waves. The sound from a loudspeaker, the light from a television – those are just stimulation for a synaptic illusion, a gray-matter parlor trick. We can hear a song through our ears, “hear” it as a memory, and even “hear” it in our dreams. We differentiate between those versions, but is there any real difference? The only thing that matters is what’s inside our heads. Let’s face it – this whole audio/video thing, this whole Sound & Vision thing – is just a comfy chair in the home theater of the mind.
While you ponder that soliloquy, I’ll let this monthly column shuffle off this mortal coil. But before I go, I’ll let you in on a secret. Occasionally, I would finish writing a column and pat myself on the back, thinking – that’s a pretty decent bit of wordsmithing. As for most other columns – well, they can’t all be Shakespeare.
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I've been reading SR since I was 12 in 1973. Over the years I appreciated quite a few writers who graced the "pages". Time stands still for no one, especially since the internet matured. I think the morphing of Stereo Review and Video Review into Sound & Vision sums up how change is inevitable. Over the many years of reading both print and digital versions of this publication it has come down to Ken as the only touchstone to a much earlier time. Now that, too, is seemingly at the finish line. I have to say I have deep regrets as I realize this. Ken, technically and prose-wise has always been a real gem and one of my favorite ever contributors. As I sensed the end was approaching, I locked into his unique style of writing the non-technical with great color. I missed some of the technical, but absolutely loved his engaging columns with reminders of his love of my sports car of choice, Porsche. Instinctively, I knew this was a brother with more audio smarts and spot-on insights. You always want your brother to be there, so, I'm saddened to know I will no longer be reading new installments of Signals. I, for one at least, sense the gravity of this passing. Ken was my only touchstone to the headiest years of Stereo Review left. I'd like to say: "job well done" as this milestone passes. Ken's writing has so enamored me that I can only hope his musings will still be published in some other forum. Old buddy, you've made my SR/S&V ride so much more memorable and rewarding. I wish you the best.