# Television



## indianroads (Jun 12, 2021)

Will the *WORD* 'television' still be used 20 years from now, or will it be replaced by 'video' (from VOD Video On Demand)?


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## Joker (Jun 13, 2021)

That depends on if it's a live broadcast or not. The tele- in television comes from telecommunication, broadcasted signals. I think video on demand is more local. But I'm no expert in this by a long shot.


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## robertn51 (Jun 13, 2021)

(With all respect due @Joker )

The english word "television" comes from tele (distance) and vision (viewing)

So "distance-viewing," and the word "television," might be evergreen, since, until we get two-way interactivity (like into "feelies") it will always be truly viewing from a distance.

(The action performed is the same but media will be changing has it has/is from interlaced analog serial scan streams to digital clumpings and compressions of all sorts all predicated upon the delivery systems and processes. Throw in entanglement and well...)

Also "video" is a portmanteau of the word "audio" (from the Latin, "audīre" "to hear") with the Latin "videre" for "to see." (Can't explain that "e" from the "i" though)

Your question is legit though.

In 20 years the word for "distance-viewing" will be something relevant to someone within their context. Might still be "television."

Remember: William Gibson created a word to describe physically-pluggable shards of programming called "microsofts" for his novel "Neuromancer." The idea worked. (This was years before the eponymous company was founded)

Make up a good word and see what happens?


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## VRanger (Jun 13, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Will the *WORD* 'television' still be used 20 years from now, or will it be replaced by 'video' (from VOD Video On Demand)?


Considering we still use the word "movies" for moving pictures, I'd bet on it.


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## indianroads (Jun 13, 2021)

I'm currently avoiding the word 'television' and using video for the programs and 'screen' for the device itself. It seems to be working... so far.


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## Taylor (Jun 13, 2021)

Another option if you are writing in the future is to give them completely new names, and describe their use the first time they are mentioned.  When it comes to technology, there's always new terms.  Just like the fact that we call the large thing on our desk a monitor.   But I wonder how long that will last, until there is some other new type of screen to look at.  Perhaps in 20 years it will be a hologram that we turn on every morning.  Will we still call that a monitor?

And then three are always those terms than morph into a new meaning.   They have been replaced but we still use the original term even though no one remembers what it stands for.  And I can't even think of many right now.  The word "love" as a zero score for tennis comes to mind.  Only because I watched the final today.  But you know what I mean. Like we say "coffee table,"  but we don't think of that as something that is only for coffee, it defines the height, and placement. Perhaps the word "PC" has lost it's original meaning, but you still see it used.    Maybe the word television won't be used that way,  but I could see TV becoming one of those words.  Like Reality TV.  People watch that on all sorts of devices.


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## indianroads (Jun 13, 2021)

For the sake of brevity I'm keeping things familiar. Television shows/movies are video, programs are feeds. I have a few scenes where the characters listen to a car radio - and left it as 'radio'... I don't want to confuse the reader too much - this novel is set only 20 years in the future, so I imagine the word 'radio' might still be in use. Another reason to keep the same term is the MC drives an antique car (57 T-Bird), so maybe an antique term for an antique car is ok?


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## JBF (Jun 13, 2021)

vranger said:


> Considering we still use the word "movies" for moving pictures, I'd bet on it.



The term, title, and usage of 'sheriff' goes back to the 1600s in America and further back still in Britain. 

Television/TV seems a safe enough bet twenty years on.


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## Irwin (Jun 14, 2021)

It seems like we don't use the word television like we used to. We used to talk about staying home and watching TV. What was on was almost irrelevant. We just sat there and stared at the TV until it was time to go to bed. 

Now we say that we watched a series on Netflix or watched a movie or some YouTube videos.

That's my experience, anyway. I'm going to go watch some YouTube videos now.


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 14, 2021)

I am with Irwin, 'TV' and 'Telly' have already taken over in speech when referring to programming, 'television' is usually the actual object, "We need a new television'.


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## MooreMom523 (Jun 14, 2021)

My own children rarely ever ask if they can watch "television" or "TV". They ask: "Can we watch YouTube?" "Can we watch Netflix?" "Can we stream Disney?" If I say television they think of it as a noun referring to the object in our living room. Not the scenes we watch on it. I think in reference to the object the word television has 20 years left in it but the meaning is definitely evolving.


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## MistWolf (Jun 15, 2021)

When we were kids, we did "watch TV" but it was always understood it was short hand for "watching something on the television". TV or "Television" has always been a noun describing a device for receiving audio visual signals and playing them to the viewer.

I remember when a 57 Thunderbird was a used car, not an antique.

20 years from now,  I think VR devices will shrink and be more popular than TV. People will go about wearing "Eye Pods" Bluetoothed to their smart phones being fed location data and advertisements.

"EAT AT JOE'S" "27th and Main" "THE LATEST SHOES!" "Next Bus To Downtown 15 Minutes" and "HOT PORN!" flashing in their HUDs.


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## MistWolf (Jun 15, 2021)

... and "In one half kilometer, turn left" interrupting the Beyonce song playing on the Oldies channel


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 15, 2021)

I can see personal devices becoming better, they are certainly popular already, but there is a social element to watching TV together that I think will persist.


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## indianroads (Jun 15, 2021)

Thanks everyone for the replies. 
I'm steering away from 'television' and using 'screen', 'videos', and feeds instead. Yes, the novel is set 20 years in the future, but the readers are in the present, so I need to keep it familiar.



> MistWolf said: I remember when a 57 Thunderbird was a used car, not an antique.


One of the societal things I'm playing with is the Green Initiative - vehicles are mandated to be electric, but the power to charge millions of car batteries isn't there, and nuclear reactors are under construction everywhere. Until they come on line, those that have electric cars and can afford to charge them, use them, the rest are relegated to public transit, which is a mess. My MC has a 1957 T-Bird (the 2 seater version of the Thunderbird), and a 2024 Indian Warrior motorcycle - both run on gasoline and he gets static for destroying the planet.


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## indianroads (Jun 15, 2021)

MistWolf said:


> ... and "In one half kilometer, turn left" interrupting the Beyonce song playing on the Oldies channel


For as long as I can remember, I've heard that we'll be switched over to the metric system in 5 years. It hasn't happened in the last 66 years, so I doubt it will happen in the next 20.

I've always preferred 'miles' over 'kilometers' for walking/running distances because it's based on the walk-run gait of a Roman soldier.


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## MistWolf (Jun 15, 2021)

Olly Buckle said:


> I can see personal devices becoming better, they are certainly popular already, but there is a social element to watching TV together that I think will persist.


In a virtual sense, yes. Already there are groups that have been coming together for years to socialize and play video games and watch videos but have never met IRL (In Real Life).


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## MistWolf (Jun 15, 2021)

indianroads said:


> For as long as I can remember, I've heard that we'll be switched over to the metric system in 5 years. It hasn't happened in the last 66 years, so I doubt it will happen in the next 20.
> 
> I've always preferred 'miles' over 'kilometers' for walking/running distances because it's based on the walk-run gait of a Roman soldier.


"There are two types of nations in this world. Those who use the metric system and those who have walked on the moon."

I'm an SAE kind of guy, myself.


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## Joker (Jun 15, 2021)

MistWolf said:


> ... and "In one half kilometer, turn left" interrupting the Beyonce song playing on the Oldies channel



Ha, that's cute.

If the technocrats get their way we won't be able to drive our own cars at all.


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## indianroads (Jun 15, 2021)

Joker said:


> Ha, that's cute.
> 
> If the technocrats get their way we won't be able to drive our own cars at all.


That's definitely coming... you know, that just gave me an idea for a murder mystery. A hacker could take control of a car and start driving people off cliffs... or into each other.


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## Joker (Jun 15, 2021)

indianroads said:


> That's definitely coming... you know, that just gave me an idea for a murder mystery. A hacker could take control of a car and start driving people off cliffs... or into each other.



Of course. It's the timeless mantra of the authoritarian.

"For your safety."


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 16, 2021)

I was not talking virtual , Mist Wolf, I have actually been called antisocial because I did not want to sit and watch TV with someone.

Indian, maybe that could already happen with aircraft. An impoverished, remote community that takes over an aircraft controls and crashes it, a bit like Cornish wreckers leading ships on to the cliffs.


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## Earp (Jun 16, 2021)

indianroads said:


> That's definitely coming... you know, that just gave me an idea for a murder mystery. A hacker could take control of a car and start driving people off cliffs... or into each other.



The was an episode of _Criminal Minds_ that dealt with that idea.


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## VRanger (Jun 16, 2021)

MistWolf said:


> "There are two types of nations in this world. Those who use the metric system and those who have walked on the moon."
> 
> I'm an SAE kind of guy, myself.


Yep, we lost a $125 million Mars probe in 1999 because nitwits at JPL decided to use metric while everyone else on the project was on English, and no one noticed.


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## indianroads (Jun 16, 2021)

vranger said:


> Yep, we lost a $125 million Mars probe in 1999 because nitwits at JPL decided to use metric while everyone else on the project was on English, and no one noticed.


I remember that... the probe missed the frigging planet.


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## Phil Istine (Jun 17, 2021)

indianroads said:


> I remember that... the probe missed the frigging planet.


Enquiring minds wish to know whether it missed by miles or kilometres.


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## indianroads (Jun 17, 2021)

Phil Istine said:


> Enquiring minds wish to know whether it missed by miles or kilometres.


A million furlongs.


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## Irwin (Jun 18, 2021)

MistWolf said:


> "There are two types of nations in this world. Those who use the metric system and those who have walked on the moon."
> 
> I'm an SAE kind of guy, myself.


Of course, we used the metric system in all the calculations for the moon flight. Just saying.


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## Irwin (Jun 18, 2021)

vranger said:


> Yep, we lost a $125 million Mars probe in 1999 because nitwits at JPL decided to use metric while everyone else on the project was on English, and no one noticed.


Actually, the specs called for metric but Lockheed Martin used U.S. customary unit. Lockheed Martin screwed the pooch.


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## indianroads (Jun 18, 2021)

Joker said:


> Of course. It's the timeless mantra of the authoritarian.
> 
> "For your safety."


Well... from what I've seen while riding my motorcycle, it would be an improvement because so many cagers (car drivers) use their phone while driving.


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## SteveTheAviator (Aug 14, 2021)

I can imagine "television" will fade, but "TV' will stay to represent Livingroom monitor screens. Similar to how "KFC" has replaced "kentuky fried chicken." And similar to how the floppy drive icon is synonymous with "save", even though college kids aren't aware it physically once existed. "Apple _TV_"  is a current product, so that acronym is still relevant.

But for entertainment media, I see words like "streaming", "online", "steaming" as mentioned, or perhaps "casting." And I see "video" being used to describe short clips on social media or content created by individuals.

@indianroads , have you kept up with the current battery tech?

In the lithium-ion world, a Chinese company is using a more efficient "blade" battery. 
Solid-State batteries. They are rigid and have less capacity. But with the weight-savings, they don't have to pull their own weight. They charge faster. They're also not volatile like chemical batteries.


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## Matchu (Aug 14, 2021)

I believe our descendants will be skipping about the virtual universe, none of the terms in usage, our [their] actual physical carcasses piled in Antarctic warehouses. Off-planet more likely.  Earth becomes some kind of luxury Eden.  If you can have luxury Eden.

'I saw Bill...'

'You mean you saw Bill through the interface?'

'Now let's not be pedantic here, weirdo.'

...

The best stories will be written about the 'warehouse men.'  I'm thinking macabre 19c engravings here of the river Styx.  Am I on theme?


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## Deleted member 64995 (Aug 14, 2021)

A very common word for those who don't watch TV is Streaming.

"Hey Frank, what are we healing today in Streaming?"

But it doesn't convince me very much.


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## indianroads (Aug 14, 2021)

Thanks to all for the input - I think I've got it covered now.


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