Never Not Seen

Early September 11, 2001 I setup a conference room for Waldenbooks assistance managers to learn about the new books for Fall, go over audit changes, and socialize. I was one of two Associate District Managers running the meeting.

We had a small room, a projector for transparencies, classroom style tables and chairs, and no windows. It was a little-used storage room within the Monroeville Mall in Monroeville, PA, and we were expecting about 20 people.

While waiting in the food court I overheard some of the regular mall walkers (seniors that get their steps within a controlled weather environment that includes coffee) share their surprise that a plane had hit a building in New York City. They walked past me still discussing it as I went up the escalator heading towards the meeting room with the newest arrivals.

2001 was Blackberry handheld communications, Nokia and Sony phones, and Samsung flip phones. Phones worked via phone numbers not the internet. Games were blips on a grey-green screen, and sending messages took repeated tapping of the number keys.

I had a laptop and could use the internet only when it was plugged into a landline. People didn't sit in meetings with their phones turned on, then, and laptops were seldom present. It took a while for the real meaning of that overheard conversation to be fully understood.

I went back to the bookstore for-- I don't remember why. Maybe to send an email, maybe to order lunch? It was then that I saw, on my laptop, that a second building had been struck. I searched for 'news' and settled on CNN. Horrified I learned a bit more, watching the same videos and trying to understand. In that big mall, for those minutes as I fought down panic; I was alone.

Then someone mentioned that a plane was heading towards Pennsylvania, flying towards Greensburg, PA. Towards the Greensburg Mall about 30 minutes from where we were. The mall that contained one of our stores, where one of the assistant managers in that meeting worked. Where they lived.

I had a printer and printed off the news, and as it was churning out pages I saw a tower fall.
Taking the pages upstairs together we read out all of the news available. Should people stay or go home? What were roads like? What was safe? Of course you should call your family. Of course you can stay here.
Please stop at an ATM and get out cash. Yes; I'm going to call the stores in my district and have them close. No; I don't have a TV. No; I don't know what else is happening.
No I don't know if we are closed tomorrow. No, I don't know if it's fake. Yes; I would stop by the grocery store on the way home.

Yes. Yes. Yes; the United States has been attacked. Yes; it's unbelievable.

That seems like it happened a lifetime ago, and I suppose 25 years is indeed a lifetime for some. It would never be the same experience if it happened now.
Now it feels like we live in another Age. Another World. Another Future Dream.

Now my phone will sound an alarm because I have an app that plugs me into a warning/disaster alert system.
Now I can ask out-loud for a news update and either my phone or my watch will answer me. I have the option to have the TV do the same, or I can purchase a very reasonable listening device that will masquerade as a lady bug or happy face that will listen for my every wondering and spout what they want me to know.

Call it Siri or Google, program it with an accent that calms you when it delivers news of famine and war, disguise it with a cartoon form or sterile efficiencies- these voice activated interfaces chill me to the bone.

My car is tracked as I drive by Flock or similar ALPR. Grocery stores seek my loyalty card app and can raise prices as I turn down an aisle looking for a habitual purchase. Facial recognition software in the many cameras posted for our 'safety' can track my movements, predict where I am going each Saturday morning, and also have an estimate how long it will take me to complete my business when I get there.

The traffic app that appears on my car dashboard asks me if I am heading to the local diner on Wednesdays when I leave work, and if I am going to the gym if it's a Thursday.

I stand at attention then perform half a jumping jack at the airport so my skeletal image can be examined before I can proceed to the gate at the airport; they'll probably still wand my breasts to ascertain that what they saw were really underwires in my bra. As I move through the airport the moving sidewalk will caution me to stand to the side so walkers can pass me. Diet Coke machines will play a jingle when the sense me passing in front of them.

Now; I am never alone. Never unplugged. Never without an outlet of information. It's like I am reading an Asimov book on my lunch hour back in my bookstore days.

And, somehow, in the midst of the constant stream of interacting information; I've never been less sure of how much that I am told is something that I can believe. Yes; it's unbelievable.