Guest Article: The Microchip Is A Serious Thing

At Super Pos­i­tion Kitty we intend to bring you the latest and most up to date news on an array of import­ant and ser­i­ous sub­jects in a forth­right and under­stand­able man­ner. With this in mind we present to you now the first in a series of guest art­icles deal­ing with very ser­i­ous sub­jects in a ser­i­ous manner.

The Micro­chip by Simone S.

They are small square things made of sil­icon? I think this because in Amer­ica they have a place called Sil­l­i­cone Val­ley where com­puters are made. (Inter­est­ingly fake boobs are also made of this stuff!)

The micro­chip meant that com­puters no longer had to be the size of a room because all the inform­a­tion is sor­ted on this tiny little square plastic thing. ‘How exactly’ is an enigma when you think about it.

Nowadays there are pic­tures and films and tele­phone lines and the inter­net all on this tiny little plastic box with a screen. What really gets me is that you click but­tons and type words and sud­denly all these images and bits of inform­a­tion are dis­played on the screen. This is no elec­tronic type writer — although that makes little sense either…

Basic­ally bits of wire and plastic pro­duce images and pho­to­graphs with no tan­gible or real­istic explan­a­tion. This was explained to me once — that bin­ary code (you know — num­bers?) trans­late through the micro­chip into words and pic­tures. Per­son­ally I don’t believe it myself. I can use the inter­net and type essays but how it works is a mys­tery. And why should I know?

When it comes to the crunch and you’re stuck up a hill­side in the freez­ing rain and search­ing for food a micro­chip will not make a warm fire or shelter.

As for as I’m con­cerned com­puters and tech­no­logy are lux­ur­ies and no way essen­tial to exist­ence. You can’t hug, fuck, eat or talk to a micro­chip. But I admit — it could come in use­ful if you’re stuck in your house alone with no-one or noth­ing to hug, fuck, eat or talk to.

A poor imit­a­tion of real life — sadly.

Note on the author: Simone S. is a Lon­doner and MA hon­ours Polit­ics and Philo­sophy gradu­ate who shares her home and life with a res­cued Stafford­shire Bull Ter­rier cross named Roxy some­where in the heart of Dun­dee. She knonws almost noth­ing about tech­no­logy but she can oper­ate her own ste­reo set up. Just.