Hype List
1. The Net
Media hype has sent waves of new users Net-ward but complaints about their behavior from long-timers have been fairly muted. This is in contrast with past years when even the fall surge of students would be greeted with flames and loud derision. The current lack of complaints isn't just because the new users have been better behaved than normal, for there have been quite a few problems with long holocaust-revisionism tracts and pyramid scheme ads being cross-posted on the Net. Instead, it seems that everyone is dealing with these problems through better news readers, larger kill files, and greater tolerance. Maybe users realize that the more people are on the Net, the more useful it will be.
2. Interactive Everything
We should have known that any revolution involving the media would be the most thoroughly analyzed and over-hyped revolution of them all. Articles examining the hype surrounding interactive TV are commonplace and soon (like now) we'll have articles examining the hype about the hype. Of course it's not just narcissism that drives the hype, it's also a chance for free advance publicity. After all, Time doesn't plan on just writing about multimedia. With the competition heating up I won't even need my interactive MTV - watching the cable, telephone, and newspaper behemoths jockeying for position should provide plenty of entertainment.
Current Position Months Position Last Month on List The Net 1 1 5 Interactive Everything 2 3 2 Fuzzy Logic 3 2 4 Ambient / Trance 4 - 1 Storage Media 5 - 1
3. Fuzzy Logic
In Japan, all major appliances from dishwashers to rice cookers are hyped as using "fuzzy logic" and "neural net" technologies. While many products do indeed use these innovative bicomputing techniques, it is often more for marketing purposes than for improved functionality. But this marketing trend has only recently emerged in the US and is developing slowly. Some claim this is because "fuzzy logic" sounds to Western ears like something to avoid rather than to buy. But the Japanese have a terrific track record in turning whizzy new ideas into products, cultural differences be damned. And if game companies can convince millions of American who don't even know what a bit is that "16-bit" machines are must-have items, expect to see fuzzy logic quickly becoming a selling point in America as well.
4. Ambient/Trance
Ambient techno and trance music have been around for a while but they used to only be heard in the chill-out room or at the conclusion of a rave. Now, especially in London, the complex multilayered Eno-esque sounds of groups like Aphex Twin and Orbital dominate many clubs. It's both a reaction to the excesses of hardcore techno as well as a signal that people in the club scene are simply getting too old to dance for eight hours to 160 BPM Gabber house.
5. Storage Media
Storage, especially removable storage, has always been the slacker in the computer technology race. While computing speed has been increasing at an unrelenting rate, storage capacity has been growing in slow, baby steps - due to technical reasons (we're talking moving parts here ) as well as standardization difficulties. But the combination of revolutionary new storage techniques and the storage demands of multimedia is making storage technology the current hot topic. Ironically, the only stumbling block may be that there are too many new storage techniques. Let's hope market pressures force manufacturers to come to a quick consensus.
Steve G. Steinberg
