# When technology makes art obsolete **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377 "2009-06-29T19:03:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/1 "2009-06-29T19:03:33Z")
I, like everyone else in the universe, was listening to “Billie Jean” the other day, when I realized…this song could not be written now. Nowadays, you could just take a quickie DNA test and determine conclusively that the kid is indeed not your son. Can anyone think of any other examples of works of art or literature in which the plot is rendered completely pointless because of today’s technology? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/2 "2009-06-29T19:13:06Z")
Movies ruined by cellphones: [World of Wonderment: Movies Ruined by Cell Phones](http://djhobby.blogspot.com/2008/10/movies-ruined-by-cell-phones.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/3 "2009-06-29T19:18:18Z")
This sort of thing happens in science fiction a lot. One of Larry Niven’s first short stories was set on the permanently-dark face of Mercury which always faces away from the Sun, and between the story being accepted and it going to print, it was discovered that Mercury’s rotation isn’t actually directly tidally locked (it’s instead a “harmonic lock”, with its rotation and orbit in a 2:3 resonance). Niven shamefacedly wrote the publisher to say that unfortunately the story would have to be pulled, but the publisher wrote back to say that it didn’t matter, it was still a good story, and ran it. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/4 "2009-06-29T19:36:22Z")
Jim Croce’s “Operator”. Nowadays you just use the internet to help you track down somebody whose number you’ve lost. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/5 "2009-06-29T20:36:39Z")
It’s so pathetic now because in every movie to create suspense you have to have somebody pinned down and drop their cellphone _out of reach_. OH MY GOD!!! How will they get out of their precarious pickle?! ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/6 "2009-06-29T20:51:10Z")
I doubt Andy Dufresne’s ID theft and clean out bank accounts plan would work all that well these days. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/7 "2009-06-29T21:21:40Z")
Any story with a legitimate Nigerian business is right out. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/8 "2009-06-29T21:49:14Z")
Even in 1978 Superman couldn’t find a phone BOOTH. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/9 "2009-06-29T21:55:01Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > It’s so pathetic now because in every movie to create suspense you have to have somebody pinned down and drop their cellphone _out of reach_. OH MY GOD!!! How will they get out of their precarious pickle?! My friend and I were discussing this very fact, and he said he’d seen some spoof movie where the protagonist had taken cover and done the old drop the cellphone down the sewer bit, with all the nailbiting that ensues - and the camera pulls back to reveal they’d taken cover on the open side of a phone booth. I didn’t catch the name of the movie, but I should ask him - it sounds like a lot smarter gag than the current crop of Wayans’ certified Scary/Date/Teen/Dance Movies out there. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/10 "2009-06-29T22:09:31Z")
From the Beatles: “When I call you up, your line’s engaged…” When’s the last time you got a busy signal? I agree the cell phone has killed the thrill of mysteries in books. The author has to figure out a reason why the person drops a cell, forgets to charge it, or leave their personal GPS somewhere. I mean this is the 11th book in the series and she’s STILL forgetting to charge her cell phone Actually most “phone songs,” seem out of place now. You know how you have to wait at home, hoping the phone will ring. Well now you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![JimmyFlair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@JimmyFlair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimmyFlair)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/11 "2009-06-29T22:19:16Z")
Led Zepplin’s “Fool in the Rain”, etc \*- where a guy is waiting for his girl and she’s not showing up, and all of the heartbreak that ensues… Now they’d be all a’ twitterin’ or using GPS in the cell phones to discover that he’s a fool waiting on the right block. - I know that there’s at least 2 or 3 other songs that use this plot. ---
**Author:** ![boozilu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@boozilu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boozilu)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/12 "2009-06-29T22:19:38Z")
I love the movie Presumed Innocent, but with DNA testing the movie would be ruined. (On a lighter guilty-pleasure note, I seem to remember a Charlie’s Angels episode where the Angels went undercover to bust a baby-selling operation – the company hired pretty girls and handsome guys to conceive some good-looking kids – cue porno music.) ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/13 "2009-06-29T22:27:26Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I agree the cell phone has killed the thrill of mysteries in books. The author has to figure out a reason why the person drops a cell, forgets to charge it, or leave their personal GPS somewhere. I mean this is the 11th book in the series and she’s STILL forgetting to charge her cell phone > > Actually most “phone songs,” seem out of place now. You know how you have to wait at home, hoping the phone will ring. Well now you don’t. I like the way that Jim Butcher’s _Dresden Files_ deals with this - cell phones just don’t work around wizards, including the protagonist. So no corny excuses or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/14 "2009-06-29T22:31:55Z")
Another classic “phone” song done wrong by technology: “Memphis, Tennessee” by Chuck Berry. Because “Google Maps=Marie+South Side+Memphis Tennessee” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/15 "2009-06-29T22:34:34Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > From the Beatles: > > “When I call you up, your line’s engaged…” > > When’s the last time you got a busy signal? ..I have to call a lot of elderly people because of my work… I get a busy signal a lot. So if its a love song about old people calling each other… it can still work. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/16 "2009-06-29T22:40:06Z")
Well … I refuse to pay for call waiting, and find it borderline rude. So if someone tried to call me when I was on the phone … yup, they’d get a busy signal. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/17 "2009-06-29T22:54:14Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > ..I have to call a lot of elderly people because of my work… I get a busy signal a lot. > > So if its a love song about old people calling each other… it can still work. Well, the next line is: “I have had enough, so act your age!” So, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/18 "2009-06-30T07:03:01Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > Jim Croce’s “Operator”. Nowadays you just use the internet to help you track down somebody whose number you’ve lost. I typically found that one of the surprisingly most frustrating impotencies of the internet. Have things changed in that regard? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/19 "2009-06-30T08:26:00Z")
It used to be easy with landlines to track on the Internet, now people got smart and cell phones aren’t easy to get a number. Most people don’t even remember a number they just program in the number and put it to a name or a pic of the person. I don’t have call waiting but I have voicemail so the call goes straight through to VM. Still I haven’t got a busy signal since the late 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377/20 "2009-06-30T13:12:40Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > Well … I refuse to pay for call waiting, and find it borderline rude. So if someone tried to call me when I was on the phone … yup, they’d get a busy signal. **Claire** , I think I love you. I can’t stand call waiting either. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-technology-makes-art-obsolete/501377.md?page=2)