Science
 

RyansWorld: Criminalization of television

From Future

Table of Contents

[edit] Near future

[edit] Growth in television to 2010

In the first decade of the 21st century television programs continue to gain in popularity - and televisions are ubiquitous. With increased automatic safety systems in cars, the laws prohibiting front seat passengers in cars from viewing television while driving are repealed (cars with a model year 2007-2010 only had television for back seat passengers). Children start to watch television on their mobile phones in class. Communities previously too remote or too poor to have television now have their own flat screen television, with key American television events such as the NBA (National Basketball Association) and the Banana Splits Show translated in real time into obscure languages like Inuit and Xanthu by automatic translation software.

This is made possible by technological advances making television and translation services cheap. The days when a television cost a year's salary and colour was unheard of are almost too distant to be a memory. Even the turn of the millennium 'blown glass' television sets with electron beams are considered archaic and quaint. With this exponential growth in television comes with an exponential growth in price; only two-income families with white-collar jobs can afford premium cable or satellite television. All other demographics must either purchase basic programming or pirate signals via fixes from the Internet (not suggested due to various legal and moral issues). Television taxes would complicate this issue in Canada starting in the early 2010s.

[edit] Selector chip

With the ubiquity of television and the proliferation of channels, there is a need for some form of content filtering. This is solved by the 'selector chip' built into all televisions produced after the year 2010. It's aimed at preventing minors from watching unsuitable content, such as adult movies, snuff movies and politically suspect content.

Control over the selector chip is a fierce competition. In China, the Xi'an administration attempts to define "politically suspect content" as anything reflecting badly on the traditional values of Chinese society. On the eastern coast of America, activists for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people are outraged to find that some states are setting the selector chip signals to censor programs with even a hint of non-conventional relationships.

This competition for control of the selector chip is fierce, but quite rapidly becomes academic. In the same way that DVD copy protection failed, the selector chip fails too, as manufacturers leak "work-arounds" that allow the chip to be bypassed in their televisions. It's one thing to buy a television that prevents your kids seeing certain programs, quite another if it prevents you from watching something that you might want to watch yourself.

[edit] Jamming: 2015

In the year 2015, the ruling Junta of Venezuela will notice a number of, in their eyes, highly undesirable aspects of modern television. In their view television:

  • Promotes American values that encourage greed and vice, especially 'consumerism'; this can be seen especially in residents who pirate satellite signals from America.
  • Promotes violence and distorted sexuality (even in shows claiming to be comedic like 'Evil Dead' or some British movies).
  • An analysis of viewing habits shows that in many respects television watching is like an addictive drug.
  • Busy parents sit their kids in front of television to keep them quiet.
  • Causes health problems, particularly obesity. People are watching sports rather than playing them, with a deterioration in physical fitness.

Ubiquitous television is having a huge, negative, economic impact. This could be seen even back when the economic crisis started in the year 2008; newly unemployed people tend to watch television instead of training for high-technology jobs. The Junta take the unorthodox step of jamming the signals in a completely wholesale fashion; blocking all channels and making the ban less draconian than it seems. As a result, blocking all television in Venezuela seen as a direct response to the break down of the 'selector chip' mechanism. As a result, Venezuela becomes the first country to break free from the tyranny of television.

Less than 1% of all television shows broadcast from America are suitable for all ages. Most shows require at least parental guidance for younger viewers and prime time shows are for mature audiences only. In jamming television, the Junta are enforcing these restrictions.

[edit] Complementary measures

At the same time the Junta bring in a number of complementary measures: Local sports leagues for participative sports, a state supported community baby/child sitter network that brings children together in small groups. Consumerism is addressed not just through a television ban, but also by a ban on all poster advertising and promotion of certain religious values. Conspicuous consumption is reduced through sharing and repair initiatives - sharing of transport, and legislation for mandatory recycle/repair facilities available from all places that sell new wares. Education and nursing are made high status occupations, through increased funding for scholarships (even more so than information technology because Venezula is a developing country). The Junta place huge emphasis on social networks. Even architects are required to design new buildings with communal spaces so that neighbours are encouraged to meet and talk with each other rather than shut their doors to each other.

Initially the Junta's experiments in social reform are mocked and made of fun in television satire programs broadcast around the rest of the world. However, in the course of just 15 years Venezuela's economic progress is outstanding. The hidden costs of television are much higher than anyone had thought. Not only that, but Venezuelan doctors and teachers have become sought after throughout the world for their excellence. Few choose to leave for long, as the standard of living back at home, with low crime, excellent education, universal healthcare in addition to strong local communities, is far higher than elsewhere in the 'televised world'. For the first time in almost 100 years, young children are allowed to stroll through the urban regions of Venezuela completely unsupervised as crime reaches an all-time low due to the lack of restricted programming on television.

[edit] Distant future

[edit] American stronghold

Many countries are experimenting with partial television bans as early as the year 2030. Also in the year 2030, researchers at the University of Heidelberg led by Dr. Muhammad Li published a paper that explained all about the evils of television. For starters, televisions release similar chemicals that the brain catches and absorbs like addictive drugs. As a result, the term 'flickerdiction' (an addiction to strobing images) first enters the lexicon of the languages of most Western countries. Germany classifies television as a class-B drug followed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom; this puts television in the same category as cannabis and alcohol. However, it not classified to be as serious as nicotine or cocaine. Rehabilitation centres are set up to help people get over their addictions to soap operas, Saturday morning animated programs, situation comedies with laugh tracks that makes situtations appear more humorous than it actually is, and tragic television news (which can actually contribute to clinical depression in some people). Because of this research paper, a Europe-wide television ban is enacted in the parliament of the European Union.

Thanks to pressure from advertisers, America remains the stronghold for television. With an increase in shopping channels selling goods of an inferior nature and television programs designed more around the commercials that are between the programming instead of the actual content, television in America becomes even more addicting and intoxicating to the mind, body, and soul. This concept can also be noticed in American sports like NASCAR and the National Football League (professional American football league). Parents wishing to send their children to Ivy league universities, however, tend to choose to send their children to schools which do not use television in the curriculum. The SAT tests now include specific elements to test for attention deficit, which many scientists believe are caused not just by fizzy drinks, but also by excess exposure to television. So even in America, the tide is turning against television.

[edit] 2040

Finally the criminalization of television in America, and in effect world-wide occurs in the year 2040 due to an a U-turn in governmental policy. Just months prior to the complete ban on television, there was almost no educational content on broadcast television. In order to keep the attention of viewers, television is using excessive realistic violence, strong sexual content, and graphic language (i.e., god damn, f***ing) in all forms of shows. This applies equally to live action shows in addition to traditional cell animation and Japanese anime shows. Computer graphic images have an uncanny ability to create an almost endless stream of such images. Shows that do not have realistic violence, strong sexual content, graphic language or all three become unpopular with the masses and are relegated to becoming "children's entertainment" shown on either weekday afternoons or Saturday mornings before one o'clock in the afternoon.

Previously banned or restricted programming (for portraying an excessive amount of graphic violence and/or sexual content) in the 2000s becomes "family entertainment" by the looser standards of the 2020s and the 2030s. Analysis by AI datamining programs shows that the cost of such television on society justifies an outright ban. Not only that, but analysis shows that criminalization is necessary too, as was hinted by the German study, a ban as of the same kind as used for illegal and controlled drugs. Canadian television will simply take longer to turn the perverted into the family-friendly.

[edit] Results of the worldwide television ban

  • People will stop consuming soft drinks and go back to drinking water permanently due to the lack of television advertising. Nanotechnology will provide an unlimited supply of food, water, materials, fabrics, fuel, and electricity for the masses to enjoy necessities and luxuries (besides television) which will be almost free of charge by the year 2040. By the year 2105, the average woman wears a size 6 dress as opposed to a size 14 dress in the year 2007. Caveat - due to greater gender equality, by 2105 that size 6 dress is actually more often a size 6 pair of jeans made from genetically modified organic (GMO) cotton.
  • The Olympic Games loses 2-3 billion viewers. It reverts from an international cavalcade of sports for the masses to an international athletic forum for the businessmen and the wealthy elite. Only a select few can afford the now much increased travel costs; completely blocking access to the middle class and the working class (except for those actually participating in the games).
  • Cinema makes something of a comeback. People flock to the movie theatres again. Film festivals become more popular with film makers talking with their audiences after a show. To be sure some film also suffers from some of the same problems identified in television - however the bulk of films require longer attention span than television does, and distribution channels, being controlled by enthusiasts rather than by advertisers, ensure that films have a very different dynamic to the worst of television. NASCAR will show all of its weekly Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series races at all the local movie theatres. Free admission will be granted provided that people come in the movie theatre wearing at least two items of NASCAR merchandise.
  • Information technology becomes the #1 employer worldwide with the electronics industry in #2 and the automobile and aerospace industries tied for third. Information technology is immune from the economic booms and busts because the price-performance ratio will make all electronic gadgets almost free of charge by the year 2040. Wikipedia becomes the second most popular web site in the world and Google becomes the most popular web site in the world as people start to look for information on the Internet (in order to fill the void that banning television will inevitable cause to the few educational programs that the networks still permit to air prior to the international ban in the year 2040).

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://future.wikia.com/wiki/RyansWorld:_Criminalization_of_television"