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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
 |
| Free Telephone Call | ||
| All telephone calls are free - in exchange for short commercials. |
In the frenetic future envisioned forty years ago by Ballard, nobody paid for phone service. That's because it was already paid for - by advertisers.
| Before Judith could reply the telephone rang. Franklin lifted the kitchen receiver, listened to the gabble of noise that poured from it. At first he wondered whether this was some offbeat prestige commercial, then realized it was Hathaway in a manic swing.
"Hathaway!" he shouted back. "Relax, man! What's the matter now?" "--Doctor, -you'll have to believe me this time. I tell you I got on to one of the islands with a stroboscope, they've got hundreds of high speed shutters blasting away like machine guns straight into people's faces and they can't see a thing, it's fantastic! The next big campaign's going to be cars and TV sets; they're trying to swing a two month model change--can you imagine it, Doctor, a new car every two months? God Almighty, it's just-" Franklin waited impatiently as the five-second commercial break cut in (all telephone calls were free, the length of the commercial extending with range-for long-distance calls the ratio of commercial to conversation was as high as 10: 1, the participants desperately trying to get a word in edgeways to the interminable interruptions), but just before it ended he abruptly put the telephone down, then removed the receiver from the cradle. |
| Technovelgy from The Subliminal Man,
by J.G. Ballard. Published by Not Known in 1963 Additional resources -
|
Some readers may recall the attempt to provide free computers and internet service, in exchange for a advertisements that were constantly shown on the screen.
In 2006, Virgin Mobile USA customers were able to earn up to seventy-five minutes of free airtime in exchange for reading text message ads on their phones. (See Would you watch ads just to talk for free? for details.)
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Subliminal Man
More Ideas
and Technology by J.G. Ballard
Tech news articles related to The Subliminal Man
Tech news articles related to works by J.G. Ballard
Free Telephone Call-related
news articles:
- Advertising-Funded Cellphone Content
- Nexus One Not Ballardian Free Ad Phone
- Targeted Audio Ads On Your Cell Phone
- Ad-Supported Free Telephone Calls
- Google Patents 'Spy In Your Pocket' Smartphone
- Will ATT Offer Ad-Subsidized Cellphone Service
| Will Whales Be Our First Contact? |
| NYC/Dublin Portal Fails To Meet 'Guardian Of Forever' Standards |
| Holobox? Who Doesn't Want A Home Hologram? |
| EBS-260 Handjet Free Hand Dot Matrix Printer |
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
