DATELINE–The Nation’s Capital

Technology to be inaugurated as 53rd president of the United States of America. Clinton steps aside to make physical and virtual room for the Technology Playground^TM that is to be the Bridge to the 21st Century^TM.

The National Mall: Technology Playground.
Children and families across the country can experience a virtual journey to the 21st Century in the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s Technology Playground.

We are all children in the hands of the new techno-democracy whereby participation will always be celebration; citizens will always be members of the audience; and telecommunications will always be the entertainment–politics the dearly departed.

Participation is the cornerstone of the Technology Playground. Children and families will have the opportunity to get hands-on, interactive experience with tomorrow’s technology. Anyone with Internet access can send a message to President Clinton or Vice President Gore through the 53rd Presidential Inaugural Web.

The same government which will never permit voting via TV Remote Control expects us all to believe that sending tax-paid interns corny e-mail messages will get us in touch with not only our elected leaders but with the future itself. But be forewarned, “tomorrow’s technology,” much like “yesterday’s government,” is already in the proprietary hands of “today’s hi-tech corporations.”

Digital Evolution, Inc., of Los Angeles, will produce the multimedia showcase of American technological innovation. In addition to Digital Evolution’s role as producer and technology developer, the other exhibitors include: in Industry, Iridium LLC and Silicon Graphics/Cray Research; in Entertainment, CCG MetaMedia, Maxis, Time-Warner, and Immersion Corporation; in Community, National Geographic Interactive and Yahoo!; in Health, HT Medical, Inc., Advance, NASA, and the National Information Infrastructure Awards (NII); and the Education section will feature IBM and PBS Online. Visitors to the Technology Playground can travel the Information Superhighway by way of Digital World, an interactive display of the best of the World Wide Web. America Online, NCR, AT&T, Cisco, Firefly Network, Inc., iVillage, Mapquest Publishing Group, Marimba, Inc., MGM, Inc., the National Institutes of Mental Health, PointCast, Sportsline Inc., and Web TV will be showcasing their contribution to the information age.

The sophisticated hi-fi Inaugural Ceremony and Celebration is no less than a Commercial for the government we’ve always dreamed of owning, as a people, but could never afford; now priced-to-sell on the World Wide Web.

But how will this new Web-based government work? If technology is the Bridge to the 21st Century^TM, can we all afford to pay the toll? Will there be jobs in the America defined by the Technology Playground or simply bemusement rides? Is this weekend’s Techno Inauguration a set-up for the sucker punch of the century?

Experts agree that the first Presidential Inauguration to be “cast” on the Web will take full advantage of the Web’s uniquely vapid constitution to amplify the low-grade marketing blather that has now fully replaced meaningful political communication.

Indeed, “the Inaugural Channel [www.inaugural97.com] takes advantage of exciting new cutting edge technology…to give citizens the most up-to-date…” in momentous political and historical events.

Experience a meaningless Democracy through equally meaningless technology Hype. Experience a third-class citizenry in the form of a “virtual community.”

Bon Appetit.