Posted by Jim at May 2nd, 2005

In Neal Stephenson’s book “Snow Crash,” a person who’s decked out in electronic gear to the point that they are online almost all the time is referred to as a gargoyle. In the book, that particular name comes from the fact that the Metaverse/internet is viewed by means of goggles and someone who wears them constantly looks rather peculiar.

Like many things in science fiction, the idea seems real because it feels like we are moving in that direction all the time.

At any given moment I may be carrying a:
flash drive
laptop
pda
mp3 player

and now (as of today):
a cellphone.

It is way too much electronic crap, all of it with slightly different purposes that don’t really overlap. There are redundancies, of course between the bunch of them, but mostly they each serve their own unique purpose in my life.

The newest acquisition (the cellphone) is for work purposes. Due to the fact that I now spend some days moving from office to office, it’s become hard enough to get a hold of me that a cellphone is actually a necessity. Ditto the laptop as I’m sick of leaving files at home (on one of the three available desktops) and realizing that I need them or having no easy way to demonstrate a web page to a client.

Thus I end up carrying piles of electronic junk with me at all times and I have multiple methods of connecting to the internet. We’ll see how I like it. In the meantime, I think I might have to get a bigger backpack. That or breakdown and get a laptop case with lots of pockets.