My seven year old son wants to know why he can't download Disney movies while I'm working. I explain to him that when he downloads videos, it takes up all the space in the cable leaving no space for any other information to come through. He wants to know what happens to my computer, why and how downloading affects my work. "I need to have aces to websites because I write stories and send them to websites so people can read them" I explain. He is satisfied with my simple answer, but I can tell that the cable concept is not quite grounded in reality. How does the Lion King himself get through the cable and land in our living room, in color and singing to the beat of an African drum?
The truth is I don't really understand it myself. I get lost somewhere between 'sound floats along air waves ' and 'information is reduced to digital signals'. I grab for the remote, the chocolate biscuit, the telephone, really anything that will distract me from the inevitable fact that there are some things I will never understand. Still something fascinates me about all that information flying through wires and landing up in our living room. The cables themselves are only wires and plastic coating. Maybe some are a better quality than others, copper a better conductor than aluminum, but still pull apart the cable and no pixie dust comes out to explain this magic flow of information that allows us to receive the wonderful world of Disney with surround sound, color and light as if we were sitting in the private viewing theatre of the head of a Hollywood studio.
There's something almost mystical about the concept of cables. In fact many mystical traditions use the analogy of a cable to explain how the physical and spiritual worlds are connected, how we are connected to our ancestors or even to a greater spiritual Force. The cable that sends information from the brain to the body is equally fascinating, complex and awesome in concept. The split seconds that it takes for my hand to type this word offers an illuminating example of the brilliance of the cable by way of the nervous system and as technology is fast discovering, it's all about speed.
As technology delivers more sophisticated media into our homes, cables are required to deliver information faster and more efficiently. Todays high definition cable HDMI Cable delivers information at a speed of six billion bits per second, which is six times the data rate required for playback from a standard DVD - still not as fast as information is delivered from my brain to my hand. I guess the difference being that in time, my delivery apparatus will be significantly diminished, and while I'm slowly making my way across the lawn of an aged care facility, the cable in my grandchildren's play pen will have Timon and Pumba themselves swinging from the light fittings and having Hakuna Matata.
Meanwhile the Disney channel clogs up my cable and technology continues to suggest that some things are better done the old way, on my disconnected laptop where the "world wide web" is just a glorified out of reach thesaurus. Later when the children are all in bed and Simba and Nala are all tucked in for the night, like Peter Pan I will once again fly through my limitless cable at ludicrous speed.
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