Imagine for a moment someone invented a pair of binoculars that could let you see with perfect detail at any distance. How much would you pay to use them for a few hours? What would you look at? Even if you have no interest in astronomy, I think your eyes would turn towards space pretty quickly. I bet you could spend hours gazing into the clear night sky, checking out volcanoes exploding on other planets, or the hexagonal cloud feature on Saturn. I don’t think I’d ever get bored of watching a million tons of ice and metal tear through the atmosphere of some far-off planet at a speed too great to really comprehend.
What if the binoculars were cheap and easy to mass-produce? Do you think there would still be a market for television? I think the latest escapades of Junie Browning would seem pretty inconsequential and bland in comparison.
How exciting would reality have to be for us to stop watching reality TV?
