ʎlɐǝɥuɐǝs
Joe Groff (1M Context)“The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel”
80s meaning: grey
90s meaning: blue
Today: full of ads from the smart tv vendor
James Savage@joe do kids these days understand channel tuning? That’s like installing Netflix, right?
some kind of orange shape
Richard Gaywood
Nudeln Al Dente 🐘@axiixc @joe I wonder when we as a species will get over these "do kids these days understand <insert archaic concept that is utterly irrelevant to their lives>?" questions. Most adults younger than me don't understand channel tuning. Tbh I'm not sure I understand how the modern auto-tuning tech works beyond pressing the button that triggers it. Why would I? The tech has moved on.
Ozzelot 
TobyBartelsYou can still tune a car radio. I'm not sure to what extent people use that these days, as opposed to connecting to their phone with Bluetooth, or ignoring the car speakers and each person using their own earbuds. But it's there, and I figure that most people old enough to sit in the front seat will have fiddled with it at some point.
Zac
d@nny disc@ mc²@joe my favorite bot on twitter would riff on this ridiculous sentence structure with a great set of word lists. it is like my #1 fedi bot todo
@joe like https://x.com/portskybot/status/1390161213242363905?s=19
The transfer from an count said a cabinet of account, broken to the Expensive arm.
@joe like
The bartender out the screen sent the rustler for head, torn to the heavy first.
chinmay 🐋@joe when we had a CRT tv tuning it to a dead channel meant mosquitoes on the screen
(this is what my mom says i would say as a kid)
Dr Alice Violett
Elias Mårtenson
LR
ferret
Passenger2020s: "Man, this youtube channel hasn't posted anything for years. It's basically dead at this point."
The sky is the colour of a burned-out breadtuber's autoplay channel-intro video, forever stuck in late-2010s vaporwave pastels.
Chaotic Human@joe Well, not for me as I generally don't have a TV and especially not a "smart" one and also block all ads with mainly uBlock Origin and a bit of help from the hosts-based adblocker hblock.
I guess my "Today's meaning" would more accurately be: the "color" of 404 errors when stumbling upon another dead link.
Manchester SciFi Book Club@joe What seemed like an immutable simile can often age quite drastically.
Its part of what makes reading older SciFi fun. "The Dragon In The Sea" had a futuristic submarine full of vaccum tubes. (aka electonic valves).
Owlet of Minerva@joe In other nostalgia, Johnny Mnemonic had hundreds of megabytes locked in his head. Hundreds.
big awoo notation@joe "it was a dark and stormy night, and the clouds were littered with advertisements"
Atomic Fox
D. G. MarshallThe sky was full of ads.
Yeah, that's either a dystopian warning, or an instruction manual for today's tech bros.
Artyom Petrov 
Juho MäntysaloThey've been talking about putting ads to moon for decades (with laser, it wouldn't be too difficult to send temporary shapes or videos, would be dramatic particularly during new moon).
I think the only reason they haven't done it yet was fear of retaliation, but as Soviet Union is history and Starlink is doing good business, I'm expecting this will happen soon.
shared public horse .not bitey@citizen_p @joe when I get my open source cyberpunk ad-blocking retinas and auditory nerve implants, the sky will be a nice pleasing dead channel TV hiss once again
Devin McColey@joe
One really has to keep in mind that the books were written in the 80s. Otherwise some aspects are kind of weird.
Hendi@joe During the covid lockdowns, sky was clear enough to actually see the Universal logo
Universal Studios Logo Now Visible Due to Decrease in Pollution Levels · Covid-19 Archive
Because human activity has decreased outside around the world because of the novel Coronavirus, pollution levels are decreasing. The Universal Studios logo has the word Universal in bold gray letters going around the earth. The creator plays with this concept, saying that the Universal Studios logo is now visible in our sky because of extreme decreases in pollution.This is a humorous but at the same time a dark concept hinting at the fact that humans are the problem and affecting the earth. Original text: Due to less air pollution the sky is so clear ! I can see the Universal logo !
Alfred Chow - Maker of Things@joe
Give it time, that last one could be true!
Give it time, that last one could be true!
silverwizard@joe today: "what's a channnel?"
Datawuppi@joe it's not just "grey"
It's several shades of grey with some constantly changing lighter and darker pixels acompanied by a kind of calming whitish noise.
It's several shades of grey with some constantly changing lighter and darker pixels acompanied by a kind of calming whitish noise.
Andy Wootton@joe The revolution will be live-streamed but only on banned social-media platforms.
jddA sky full of ads would be pretty cyberpunk. Matrix version: “ … but we do know it was us who enshittified the sky …”
Dom@joe You know you’re on Mastodon when someone you follow boosts a toot containing the first words of one of your favourite books… 😎
Jo@joe 2000s: "NO SIGNAL"
Jernej Simončič �
Chewie
四@joe I was thinking about that the other day. Younger people don’t know of the idea of TV channels not being on 24/7 and there being a calibration image being transmitted when there was no programming.
Then again the youngest generation probably aren’t that aware of TVs soon.
R. Rojas 
@yon @joe I guess CRT TVs will still be know because of CRT Ratro Gaming and Analog terror videos.
Like how the indian test pattern of black and white TV is recognize by younger people for the Fallout games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian-head_test_pattern
vriska, thief of light 
@joe Vizio and Google let you just. not agree to their terms of service. which is very nice
mirabilos@joe blue? I only know "snowstorm" (80s/90s).
Licho
Skelozard@joe What year is Neuromancer supposed to be set in?
Saagar Jha@joe Note to self never go viral on this site
Hieronymus
Christopher Neitzert@joe I recently tried to describe dead tv channel snow to a 20yo German kid. I feel this post in my knees and back
Stoneface Vimes@joe finest novel first line I've ever read.
Stanislav Ochotnický@joe I see William Gibson/Neuromancer reference and I have to boost ...