It appears that Youngblood had a very clear image of what would occur in today's technological developments in regards to radical evolution. While brand names may retain similar upstanding reputations of the past, their products often don't last more than a year or two at the maximum. For instance, the cell phone market is in such a state of rapid evolution that by this time next year, the current model of phone will be forgotten about in favor of a marginally better product. Just as Youngblood predicted, rapid degeneration and decay are most definitely the watchwords of a society that is increasingly moving towards disposable technology. Commercials on television depict services to buy back obsolete technology while stressing that prices are falling fast on old models. High definition televisions have declined from several thousand dollars per unit several years ago to only several hundred for an updated model. That is to say, the technology isn't being replaced by something radically different, it is only evolving at an accelerated pace.
It is through this constant reorganization that our definitions have evolved over time. In the time period that Youngblood published Expanded Cinema, it was near miraculous to imagine a unit that is the size of a credit card with the ability to access almost all of the information in the world. As such, it would be described as "high tech." In modern times we take smart phones for granted and use them to take pictures of ourselves and look at cats. Due to this effect on development, it would be difficult to prognosticate what our definitions of technology will be to future standards. The only thing that is for certain is that all we hold as miraculous human achievements may just be brought down for the common man's pleasure in the upcoming years.
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