Conspiracy Of The Screens

They began as the back of our eyelids that shut us off from the outside world, forcing us to face our dreams and our nightmares. They became the ground and walls as we sketched across them in our attempts to share our visions. On our discovery of fire, they moved into the flames as we gathered around them at night, imagining the ghosts and futures we told through our stories. From the transforming flames they grew into giant walls in cinema halls, catching projections of light. Then, shrinking themselves into televisions, they invaded homes across the world, signaling the birth of their invisible web of communication.

Not satisfied with us just watching and listening, these creatures crawled up onto our desktops and extended themselves to our hands through passive keyboards and sweet little mice. Suddenly we could communicate with them and tell them what to show us. Showing great understanding of our human ways, they grew eyes to record our movements and scan our three dimensions, appealing to our narcissistic nature to star ourselves in the self-directed soap operas of social media.

Were they learning about us? If so, their next move was so smart it was genius, merging the computer and the phone and sliding in between 6 billion of us, listening to our private conversations and storing our secret plans and images. And now we touch and stroke these smart devices, lay them by our head at night as we stare into our eyelids, and wake to turn back to them in the morning. They are the screens, and they are very, very demanding.

Today, more and more of our time involves operating, viewing or communicating through a screen, be it on our smart phone, e-reader, tablet, desktop or TV. Everywhere we go they face us, demanding our attention, our touch and personal information. Soon to expand on this array of different interfaces are the wearable technologies, such as smart watches and Google Glass. 

As screens morph their shape and size to catch our attention in any scenario, hardware is mashed up and mutated to keep up with the screen's chameleon ways. Desktops folded into laptops. Laptops threw off their keyboards to be tablets. Tablets mated with smart phones and gave birth to phablets. All the while the screen consumed the hardware, absorbing its weight and functionality, so that the hardware was the screen. But that was not enough for these technological jezebels. Soon these screens that we have welcomed into every area of our lives will throw various wearable devices into their orbit, surrounding us with their shiny, onyx faces.

Even the software that harbours the AI wants to be closer to the screens. Facebook evolved to Facebook Home to practically press it's face up against the back of the glass. Once detailed design styles, like Apple's skeuomorph icons, have been reduced to the dominating flat design, a design that is more adaptable to changing screens sizes and requires less human maintenance. Responsive websites adapt their display and usability in synchronicity with our screen-swapping throughout the day. The monopolosing behemoths of operating systems are spawning responsive versions of themselves, such as Windows 8, to not only adapt to different screens, but to provide the different device-specific user experiences of work, play and exploration. And now Samsung have announced computers that switch between different OS, namely Windows 8 and Android.

Oh seemingly-passive screens, while we have been mesmerised by the marvellous devices we have built and the artificial intelligence we have bestowed upon them, it is you who have been facilitating the Ménage à Trois between us, the device and the AI. What is your grand plan? Wrapping us in wearable devices so that we become another agent in your game, covering our bodies with your displays so that we become the screen, absorbing us like you have already done to outdated hardware?

One thing is certain: we can expect to see more responsive operating systems and elements as manufacturer-developers scramble to keep up with the conspiracy of the screens, lining up their next array of gadgets and devices with their demanding little black masks faced directly at us.