 A
box-like apparatus with a glowing window stands near the far wall.
The face of a man stares through the window and his voice fills the room.
Suddenly a small rectangle containing a combat scene appears above the
man's shoulder. The man proclaims that the images come from a far
away place called the Middle East. He commands the rectangle to expand,
annihilating his own presence in the window. The sounds of battle
reach our ears from the other side of the world.
Are we not witnessing a miracle?To a visitor from the 19th Century, however, the electronic genie who can compress distant battlefields into a cabinet the size of a coal bin must indeed possess supernatural powers. The best education of a hundred years ago did not include certain laws of nature:
Even today, few people command a thorough knowledge of all the technologies of television, which would include...
"It's a miracle," the father says. Brother Dominic smirks skyward.In my position as Director of Product Planning at the Xerox Corporation through the seventies, I was called upon to review various advertising proposals. Given the antipathy I have expressed in this essay, it may not be obvious why I was delighted to recommend management approval for the campaign. Brother Dominic, by never uttering the word 'miracle' himself, gave full recognition to the product development team at Xerox for their technological achievements.
|
Twelve
years after I published this essay,