• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, January 19, 2010

At the close of the 19^th century - give or take a decade in either direction - American humorist Mark Twain wrote multiple versions of a short, long story called "The Mysterious Stranger."  "It was in 1590 - winter. Austria was far away from the world and asleep," it began. As I recollect, having read the story decades ago, a young country boy meets a mysterious stranger in the town. They befriend each other. The mysterian possesses great powers: magical, philosophical, physical and astrological. Wonders abound throughout the unsuspecting community. Trust builds between the boy and his new found barely visible friend - culminating when the stranger cradles the young boy in his arms, leaps into the air and takes flight offering the boy the experience of surveying many of Europe's great kingdoms from an aerial perspective.

 

At first fearful, later at ease and growing bolder still, the boy, commenting on the wonders of the palaces and majestic courts and "air travel," innocently suggests that there must be other worlds, universes to visit as well, and expressed how he looked forward to their exploration with his friend. In a flash the mysterious stranger angered, touched down unseen in the boy's village, placed the boy securely on the ground and while departing informed his young friend that "there are no other."  And vanished.

The boy wondered for the rest of his life had he dreamt the whole experience. And with what language could he express his experience when referring to air travel that was neither a magic carpet ride, or possibly, a hot air balloon.

Around the same time that Mark Twain was crafting "The Mysterious Stranger," a Harvard professor had written a story focusing on the adventures of the fictional character X whose universe was a two dimensional graph. One day while X was contemplatively sitting on a line he hears a voice, so the story went. He looks north, then south, east and finally west. But no one is visible. X resumes his meditation. Again the voice calls him. X dares not look up. The voice summons. Startled, X catches the slightest outline of a being hovering between an x and y axis. He gingerly approaches - though holding his line. A conversation ensues. The hovering being asks if X would like to experience a new dimension. With trepidation X agrees and is lifted into the new realm. "Where are we?" X queries. "Why, in the third dimension," his host knowingly responds. They tool around three dimensionally for awhile and the host asks X what he thinks. Enthusiastically, X replies that this has been an indescribable experience and now that they have visited the third dimension, he can't wait for his friend to show him the fourth. "The fourth", he barks. "There is no fourth dimension." But before X can undo the harm he has obviously caused his guide he is slapped back to his two dimensional graph. 

As X crashes onto the graph his close friend Y, from the two dimensional universe, happens to be passing by - walking the line - and seeing that X looks troubled inquires how his day has been. "Y, can I confide in you," he meekly asks. Y nods. "I've had the strangest experience," he whispers. "I traveled up." "You mean north," Y corrects. "No, up," X continues. After their conversation and Y has moved onto another square, X can't help wondering if he had dreamt "up" when all movement in that supposed direction in his universe is limited to north.

Once a year, in winter, mysterious strangers, brandishing gizmos of all shapes and sizes, descend upon the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show to take media and consumer electronics professionals on trips to other dimensions and universes. This year CES was bombarded with Avatar-enhanced screened 3D images, technological variations on e-reader themes and the wonderment of TV monitors and connected devices that widgetized, USB'ed and WiFied content instantaneously across universes of consumer electronic platforms.

Listening to all of the CES hoopla, I could not help wondering where all of these mysterious strangers are trying to transport us. Given the harsh economics of our time (17.3% unemployment, a painful recession possibly heading toward deflation, 2.8 million foreclosures, 46 million without healthcare coverage), a media and entertainment industry in the throes of re-jiggering to support its very existence, and constant consumer bombardment with new product offerings promising connectivity of re-purposed content, selling expensive 3D TVs and e-readers to employees of those major banks and securities firm that are poised to pay their executives compensation of $145 billion does not appear to be the building blocks of a solid foundation and successful model. Then again, maybe we should just skip 3D technology and hawk fourth dimensional electronics. Or am I dreaming.