"The world’s now placid, featureless, and culturally dead: nothing really new has been created since the Overlords came. The reason’s obvious. There’s nothing left to struggle for, and there are too many distractions and entertainments. Do you realize that every day something like five hundred hours of radio and TV pour out over the various channels? If you went without sleep and did nothing else, you could follow less than a twentieth of the entertainment that’s available at the turn of a switch! No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges — absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won’t be living their own lives any more. It will be a full-time job keeping up with the various family serials on TV!" — The ever-prescient Arthur C. Clarke, in 1953’s Childhood’s End.
TRIVIA: Did you know Led Zeppelin’s album cover for Houses of the Holy was based on Childhood’s End? SO COOL. Plus, terrifying!
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He told us so.
What a great novel from one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. If you’ve never read it, do so ASAP.
That part about becoming passive sponges, reminds me of the humans in Wall-E.
That kinda scares the hell outta me. Maybe I’m being overdramatic…
Excellent quote!
Only happens if you let it…cancel cable and go make something.
Haven’t figured out how to get off the internet though…does it at least count as less passive.
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