Canton, 10/6/03 10:56 PM -0600, A day at the EPCOT center

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1 X-ClientAddr: X-Sender: Date: Tue, 7 Oct :56: To: c@ontology.com From: Canton <c@ontology.com> Subject: A day at the EPCOT center Status: O 1 Hi everyone! Our band had a day off in central Florida, and instead of spending it in some hotel, our bus driver had the idea to park us in campground at Disney World, near Orlando. I decided to adventure off to the Epcot center, the one area of the Mouse Empire which has kept my interest even after learning about Disney Corp's evil ways of grossing $50 B. annual by using sweatshop labor, etc. I'm told that originally, Mr. Walt Disney's idea for the Epcot center was to show us a path to a sustainable future using advanced technology. But as it was implemented, the theme park I visited yesterday was the most bombastic corporate mind control scheme I have ever seen. It's one thing to brand sporting events or to brand a theme park, but it's another thing entirely to let corporations *design* exhibits targeted at kids. Some of the exhibits were obvious advertising attempts: step into futureland and see the wide array of IBM laptops and flat screens that can be purchased TODAY. While annoying (and not worth my $58 admission fee) these exhibits didn't really surprise me or boil my blood. Here's what *did* bug me: THE HISTORY OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION from the caveman days to today. This is the exhibit that takes place in the giant globe you see in all the pictures of the Epcot center. It's created by AT&T, and suggests that the very pinnacle of human achievement is the AT&T video phone. (???) As for the world history leading up to the videophone (as portrayed in scenes filled with Animatronic actors), AT&T neglected to include a single non-western cultural advancement, as if China only sprung into existence the day it got phone service. A tip of the hat to pictograms, to written language, to music... But where things really get rolling is the telegraph (insert swelling music.) When you exit the ride, you are dropped off in an exhibition room showing all the latest AT&T technology that's supposed to make your life better "and make the world a better place for all cultures, as we invent new and better ways to communicate with one another." Hmm. As if a better phone connection is going to resolve our current geo-political problems... 1

2 Next: LOOK CLOSER: THE WONDERS OF LIFE created by the Farm Bureau. You may not have heard of them, but this is one of the groups that draws protesters out in huge numbers. The Farm Bureau looks out for big agribusiness, and big agribusiness only. They're the folks who run ads telling us that genetically modified food will solve the world hunger problem. (Makes me wonder about the so-called "terminator" gene which, when spliced into a plant, turns its seed infertile so that farmers must purchase seed every year instead of using some portion of the crop for re-seeding. Could be a problem if this cross-pollinates to some non-gmo crops...) There was a bit of irony in their exhibit though, which was designed to show us how much better a genetically modified potato plant fares than a "traditional" (non-futuristic) potato: 2 Above: the exhibit. 2

3 3 Above: exhibit text. 3

4 4 Above: okay here's the funny thing. yes, the left plant is chewed up and doing terribly... But on the right plant, it looks like this particular potato bug has started to nibble away at the GMO plant. Two possibilities here: 1) The genetic modification works by expressing a B.T. protein in the leaf, which kills the bugs *after* they've eaten a little bit. If this is the case, then Disney must be doing a heck of a job maintaining this exhibit, because there were no dead bugs in the display case, or, 2) Wow, look, this is the real future! It's a potato bug that just developed an immunity to B.T. and will now ravage crops until the companies that make up the Farm Bureau come up with a new genetic insecticide... [Monsanto, the big GMO crop R&D outfit, acknowledges that the trick of getting plants to express B.T. will only last for 10 or 15 years, and then they'll have to move on. This will be a major bummer for organic farmers, who spray organically-derived B.T. as a last resort on their crops when traditional organic farming pest control doesn't work.] Okay, one more exhibit. (Just reading this, you probably feel as if it was YOU who walked 5 miles all around the theme park. :) FORESTS OF THE FUTURE -- an interactive exhibit that lets you make your own paper! I've done this a few times before at other museums and such. But everywhere else, they showed me how I could use a blender and a bunch of old newspaper to make my own paper. In the FOREST OF THE FUTURE exhibit, they let you make paper with real pine trees! In this photo, check out who put on this exhibit: 4

5 5 Personally I think it's pretty shocking that at the Epcot center, sneak preview into the future, they show you how the future is about turning new trees into paper instead of recycling. As for the giant Energy exhibit, I didn't have the heart to go through the line. It was run by Exxon. Love despite this particular wave of cynicism, - canton 5