They are the everyday objects which apparently we can't live without.
Innovative gadgets that fascinate and entertain.
Shiny new devices that are constantly upgraded to be faster and more powerful,
with must-have new features.
# I'm the operator with my pocket calculator. #
'Millions of us have succumbed to the culture of upgrading.'
# I'm the operator with my pocket calculator. #
'I'm already on my tenth mobile.
'Why do so many of us...' Hello? '..covet the upgrade?'
Wrong number.
Is it really about functionality, the look, or the feel,
or is there some deeper psychology at work here, to do with status and desire?
Gadgets have changed our relationship with the world and rewired our perceptions.
As I writer, I'm interested in their impact on our imaginations.
It's really funky. 'This story will take me to the other side of the world...
'to the beating heart of the upgrade.'
The speed of product innovation continues to accelerate,
but is it sustainable?
And what's going to happen to all this stuff now?
'The future is digital, but is it beautiful?'
I am now very pleased to introduce someone who's written novels, short stories, television films.
Most recently he's written a book about how music has shaped his life. It's called "Gig".
And on top of all this, he's one of Britain's finest poets.
Please will you welcome Simon Armitage.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
Hello. I'm going to start by reading a poem
about the pace of modern life and its effect on the brain
and its effect on the body, so it's a poem that goes very, very quickly
and it's called Killing Time Number 2.
Time in the brain cells Sweating like a nail bomb
Trouble with the heartbeat spitting like a sten gun
Cut to the chase, pick up the pace
No such thing as a walkabout fun run
Shoot yourself a glance in the chrome in the day-room
Don't hang about You're running out of space, son
Red light, stop sign Bellyful of road rage
Ticket from the fuzz if you dawdle in the slow lane
Pull up your socks Get out the blocks... VOICE FADES
If the pace of life HAS accelerated, one major factor might be
our obsession with keeping up with the speed of technological innovation.
I'm very happy with my new Smartphone...
I can communicate however, wherever and whenever I want.
But at other times, I wonder if gadgets make us frantic and anxious.
What drives our appetite to upgrade to the latest consumer technology?
And how has new technology changed our lives?
West Yorkshire, where I was born and live, was one of the cradles
of the Luddite movement, and back then technology was a dirty word.
Ironic, then, that without realising it,
I've become a bit of a technophile with my sat-nav, Smartphone and laptop.
And inside this little furry, blue pouch...
I keep this little, silver memory stick.
Every word that I've ever written is on that stick,
which is pretty extraordinary, and I don't even think I will ever fill it.
If I'm looking for evidence of upgrading, I needn't look much further than my own home.
Dumped in a drawer on the landing are my past purchases.
I suppose you could say that this drawer,
and several others like it in the house, represent the story of my upgrading thus far.
This is the archaeology of my upgrading.
I don't whether these are trophies, or whether it's a sort of, you know, detritus, or what.
This was my first laptop, which I actually feel quite sentimental about now.
Probably bought this about ten years ago.
But I was so proud of it and worried about losing it
that I used to hide it under the settee every night when I went to bed.
Sony Walkman, PDA, Palm Tungsten.
This was probably the most useless device I ever bought.
I was getting rid of a handwritten diary and transferring everything to this -
contacts, appointments, names, addresses, telephone numbers -
it was all going to be in here.
And also you had to learn a whole new Hieroglyphic language
before you could put information into it.
Who wants to do that, you know at age 40-plus, learn a whole new language,
just so they can write, "ten o clock, dentist"?
Excavating this drawer makes me question my attitude to technology.
Am I destined to carry on upgrading forever?
The digital revolution has crept up on us all.
It's now so common-place, we barely recognise it.
Last year in the UK, we bought a cool 24 million new phones.
It feels like the speed of upgrading is accelerating.
I've come to the John Lewis department store in Oxford Street, London.
Despite the credit crunch, in 2008, sales of consumer electronics
across John Lewis's 28 stores were up 3% on 2007.
Across Britain last year, we went on a technology buying spree of epic proportions.
We purchased six million digital cameras,
and seven million MP3 players...
..which must be music to the ears of retailers like John Lewis.
I know it's an odd thing to say in a shop, but everything looks very new,
you know, stuff that I haven't seen before.
How often do the ranges change in all these, you know, various gadgets and things?
Well, it varies slightly from product area to product area.
I mean, the one that you're standing next to here in computing, this changes four times a year
and it completely changes four times a year.
- So every three months, everything is changed here.
- Yeah, total new range.
That's probably the most rapid change that we see.
Areas like televisions and DVD recorders, that type of thing,
they normally change once a year but they have what they call a refresh, so pretty much every six months.
'The entire camera range changes twice a year too.
'It's mind-boggling how often everything is replaced.
'Within months your new gadget is so...
'yesterday?
'The living rooms of Britain have been transformed into home-entertainment emporiums,
'with a subwoofer behind every settee.'
And is there one particular product that's driving this whole thing, would you say?
I think, in the last five years, what's absolutely made people get excited about technology
is the TV, because there's been this fundamental shift
from the large box in the corner to something much slimmer and sleeker.
Also people don't seem to be bothered any more, that it's a bit like being sat in the pub,
you know, there's a sort of a 60 inch television there in the room.
Why do you think people buy technology?
Is it just need, or is it something else?
There is need, so, "The telly broke, I want a new one."
But for an awful lot of people it is about what their friends have got,
it's perhaps a status, and it's very much become part of our lifestyle.
So you see it in the media, you see it on television yourself,
and people start to think, "I must buy into that."
'The digital revolution has delivered uncountable gizmos and gadgets into the heart of our lives.
'And to some they bring status and credibility, implying as they do success, knowledge and power.'
When you're in this kind of Aladdin's cave of technology
it's almost impossible not be seduced into the idea of wanting something.
And I don't think it's just because everything is so shiny and sleek and slim-line and lightweight,
it's the fact that it's all working and it all looks so neat and tidy
and you think, "Actually my life could do with a bit of tidiness. If I get that thing there,
"it's going to sort everything out, bring everything into focus, put everything in its right place."
It does make you want to... does make you want to purchase.
Looking around, upgrade culture seems to cross all boundaries of class, age and ethnicity.
Perhaps it's been fuelled by the wealth that this country has enjoyed in recent years.
When I was young, money was much tighter and there was far less choice.
I'm going to meet some schoolchildren to discover just how much of this stuff today's kids have got,
at a school I know well from my visits as a poet.
My first gadget was a radio in the shape of an electric shaver.
How hilarious is that?!
It only played Radio One.
In fact, it only seemed to play Grandad by Clive Dunn!
OK, guys, if you could just pop your stuff... Just take it off the desk for the time being.
If you just clear the desks, thanks.
If you've brought a gadget or an electronic device with you today,
can you just get them out and put them on the table?
'I'm gob-smacked by the amount of stuff the children have brought in today to show me.
'Holland Park School is a diverse inner-city comprehensive
'and the pupils here come from every social background.'
- Is that a special cover for that?
- Yeah.
Oh, that's pretty cool.
- You can put music on it.
- Can you watch videos on it as well?
'These kids are 11 and 12, but a remarkable 49 out of 50 own a mobile phone.
'Only a handful don't have the latest MP3 player or games console.
'And every child here owns a digital camera.
'You can't help thinking that gadgets are actually part of their identities.'
Is it cool to be the same as everybody else or is it cool to be different?
Could you be really cool by NOT having a phone?
If you have a phone, it's cooler than not having a phone,
but it's also cool to have a different phone to your friends.
People like to compare their phones, for just like early on.
Me and Dan were just comparing our phones, comparing the different features
on our phones, such as the camera, the games, the downloading off the internet, and things like that.
What is the ultimate gadget? What is the best gadget to have?
- The iPhone. - iPhone. - Yeah.
- It's cool, it does everything.
- So even though nobody here's got an iPhone, you've all heard of it?
- Yeah.
You all know what one is and you all desire one?
- Yeah. - I don't think I really need one at this
stage in life. - Maybe you're in denial about it,
secretly it's the thing that you desire more than anything?
Um, not really.
'Toys have long been status symbols for kids.
'But for this generation, there seems to be a good deal
'of social pressure on them and their parents to acquire the latest gadgets and be part of the gang.'
It's also really interesting to see what a social tool they are.
Gadgets are often thought of as things that isolate people,
but watching them together here, it seems to me that they're often devices for bringing people together.
'I thought it would be fun to see how many of them could recognise a portable music device from MY youth.'
Has anybody got one of these?
No. What is it?
- What do you think it is? - A box. - I think
it's a computer. - Do you think it's a computer?
I think it's one of the first computers ever made,
inside the box.
It looks like it could be some big, chunky laptop, in its case.
I think it's a radio and it might be like you can sit in it while listening to music.
THEY LAUGH Very comfy! What do you think it is?
It's a music thing, one of the those old fashioned things.
- A gramophone.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Madonna!
You press a button and this comes up.
- This thing moves, then it takes it, and then it plays it.
- Wow!
- Whoa!
- Put it right at the edge.
No, don't do it too hard.
RECORD SCRATCHES
MUSIC STARTS
'Music, and how to access and listen to it, has been
'one of the biggest drivers of upgrade culture for today's generation.
'For me, music has always been a kind of fuel that powers your daydreams.'
I'm from that generation that got a wonky spine from carrying vinyl around.
I was in my mid-teens when bands like Blondie were making their noise.
I caught the tail end of punk, and all my spare money went on records.
After vinyl, it was the cassette,
and the Sony Walkman - nothing short of a revolution.
Suddenly you could go anywhere with music.
Then it was CD, minidisc, and finally the digital MP3 player,
dominated by one particular brand.
# This is ground control to Major Tom... #
The iPod was a quantum leap in listening to music.
Suddenly you could have 10,000 songs on this little device.
The comparison used to be with a cigarette packet that you could just drop in your top pocket.
But I used to think of it as like a little block of Kendal Mint Cake
sat there, and with these headphones it was like music playing directly into your thoughts,
it was music being mainlined straight into your imagination.
The Classic iPod will always be white.
'Tom Dunmore is a gadget guru
'and the editor of lads' gadget magazine, Stuff.
'Stuff has dotted every "i" in the iPod story.
'It's gadget porn for those who lust and desire.'
Can we talk about what I think of as the stuff of Stuff?
Do you remember seeing your first ever iPod?
I remember it really clearly actually
because I went to the Macworld Exhibition in London.
It was the first day it was on sale. It had already been out in America,
but not for very long.
Well, I think I've got one of the first ones here, and...
back then, when it started - this is actually a second generation one -
but the first one that came out, it looked exactly the same, but this wheel here was actually mechanical
so it moved with your finger. And I actually really miss that
because there's a kind of really nice analogue feel to quite a digital device.
When this notion of the iPod came along I was really excited about it.
I said to my wife, "I want one of those," and she said, "I'll get you one for Christmas."
And I still use the one that I got all those years ago, so I guess this is kind of an original, isn't it?
- Yeah that's a third generation iPod.
- Third generation?
That's third generation, yeah. So that came after this one.
'Tom walked me through the whole evolution of the iPod upgrades.
'They've come thinner and faster.
'Six generations of the iPod Classic since 2001,
'each smaller, with a bigger memory or more features.
'Of course, there are other MP3 players.
'Brands like Sony, Creative or Philips.
'But for me, it's the iPod that is synonymous with upgrading.'
Is it fair to say that we've been living through a revolution, a digital revolution?
Absolutely.
I mean, it's not only been a digital revolution, it's gone hand in hand with a design revolution
and I think the two are really interlinked.
With the iPod, Apple upped the design stakes and brought a new simplicity to music players.
Going digital freed the industry to play with the look and feel of devices.
But it's not just the thirty-something male readers of Stuff magazine
who have bought the latest iPods.
Women, kids, even old fogey dads like me have sported the famous white earphone.
While Apple were the established cool outsider brand,
I wonder if the iPod's success was also down to its advertising.
'Robin Wight is a leading ad man who spent years researching advertising psychology.'
Robin, when I think of iPod advertising, this is the advert I think of. The silhouette campaign.
Why was this so important?
These are brilliant. First of all, you got this signalling of the white wire.
A big part of this young people's market
is you're trying to signal your success...
about, basically, genetic fitness.
Through having an iPod they are saying, "I am good breeding stock."
You are exactly doing that. At an unconscious level and sometimes
at a conscious level you are saying that you can afford this... display activity
and you're actually signalling peacock-tail behaviour and signalling genetic fitness.
It is the mating game.
How big do you think my iPod is?
Your iPod? I am sure you have the very latest one.
A small one may be more status than a big one, at least in iPods.
Is it is crude as "I want to be that person?"
One of the points is you don't see who the person is so you could be that person.
You can identify with it.
It's concept of the incomplete proposition.
It's called the Zygonic Effect.
If you have something that's incomplete, you complete the circle, which your brain will do,
it's more engaging.
In your opinion, with an upgraded product, is that product a response to our need for an upgraded product
- or is it simply the company's need to keep on selling these things?
- Well, it's a mixture of the two.
The company's need to keep selling things wouldn't work if there wasn't this underlying need.
People need, for the function and signalling power, the upgrades. It drives human progress.
You should be happy. If humans didn't want to upgrade,
we'd probably still be in the Middle Ages.
Apple and clever advertising psychology certainly helped grab music out of the Middle Ages.
But it's interesting today the biggest global player
in consumer electronics is not in the United States, or even in Japan.
They're here, in South Korea,
at the cutting edge of the digital revolution.
I've just peeled myself out of the aeroplane after a ten-hour flight.
The sun's coming up on a new country for me.
It's very exciting. And I'm heading to Gadget HQ, in Gadget City, in Gadget Country.
So I feel as if I'm right in the epicentre
of the technological revolution, and it's exciting.
South Korea is one of the world's most advanced digital societies.
The capital city Seoul is home to Samsung,
today the world's largest consumer electronics company.
Their global sales have overtaken Sony's, and competitors like Toshiba and Panasonic.
This is Samsung's swanky new headquarters.
The company make an extraordinary diverse range of gadgets,
with products for every conceivable -
and some inconceivable - occasions.
In 2007, their global consumer electronics sales reached a staggering 105 billion.
Inside the HQ is Samsung D'light,
a glistening multimedia display promoting the creative philosophy of the company.
My guide is Seon Mi Jin.
Watch your step. Samsung D'light has three floors,
and now we are going to the first floor.
On the first floor, there are three kinds of genre -
image, text and sound.
Image, text and sound.
And it's also the kinds of marketing, and...
'The atmosphere is post-postmodern,
'but one you can touch and play with!'
An other-worldly high-tech palace of the senses.
What have we got here?
Oh, yes, er, now you see our MP3 player.
- Oh, they're MP3 players, are they?
- Yeah.
- Right. It looks very light.
- Yes. Would you like to pick up?
- Oh, yes. - It's really light.
- It weighs nothing, does it?
So it's a sort of pebble-shaped iPod type thing?
Ah, yes, that could be. Yes.
Why would Samsung design something in the shape of a pebble?
It's designed like a pebble because it is easy to grip
and easy to hold,
and really a small one, yeah.
- But it's sort of beautiful as well, isn't it?
- Yes, yes.
Is that the idea, to appeal to people's sense of beauty?
Sure, yeah, so it's really popular for young people, especially,
and we also have a pebble design for DVD players.
Because a lot of the original gadgets were quite ugly, weren't they, but they, but they were useful.
But it seems now almost as if they're becoming jewellery, an ornament.
Ah, yeah, yeah. It could be also one idea with these MP3 players.
Yeah.
Walking around the exhibition is a calm and inviting experience.
It's design that wants us to engage and be at one with it.
Samsung's business is to create the products of tomorrow and to anticipate our desires.
Everything is lightweight and pleasing to the eye.
What's very clear, looking at these products, is that function is no longer a primary concern.
We all know that these things work.
It's about fashion now, it's about design, it's about decoration, it's about beauty.
Who knows - it could even be about art.
'Six floors above the showroom, Samsung's mobile phone design team
'are brainstorming next season's phones.
'Each year they're responsible for designing dozens of new models.'
'Surprisingly, they use literary notions to inspire their discussion with enigmatic team leader Eliot.
'Ideas like stories, emotion and identity.'
'The biggest trend in consumer electronics is convergence,
'gadgets that can do a multitude of things.
'The team's latest design is an upmarket touch-screen phone
'combined with camera, MP3 player and internet access.'
Actually designing something is like a journey
for finding kind of...a new story,
new kind of emotions for the people.
So they wanna express their lifestyle with this, you know,
very stylish phone, especially the back.
The back side is more important,
you know, it's getting more important these days.
So, through the back of the phone, because that's projecting towards other people,
- you're signalling to other people what sort of person you are?
- That's right. That's right.
- And what sort of person would
- I - be if I had this phone?
Would I be cool? Smart?
- Both, I think.
- Sexy?
- Absolutely.
- And next year will there be a better phone than this?
Absolutely. Because, er, design trend is changing and people's emotion is also changing.
Does Korea have a huge appetite for new phones?
It's kind of test bed for new design, new technologies.
So, every time we introduce the new phones, people really like that.
Sometimes having...old phone here, it's kind of very strange.
ELECTRONIC PIANO PLAYS
On the 11th floor live Samsung's ring-tone team.
It might not be Mozart, but these little ditties
are the Pavlovian noises that send us scurrying to our phones.
HIP-HOP BEA
As if our devices speak to us using a language we all understand -
music.
BEEPING TUNE PLAYS
Across Seoul, I was then shown a vision of what Samsung think our domestic lives might become.
- Hello. - Hello,
nice to meet you. - Hi.
This is Future House.
We're joined here by Microsoft and Samsung Engineering And Construction to exhibit the house of the future.
So today I will be the owner of this house that I would like to introduce to you.
Please to be seated on the couch.
This is the living room and this cellphone is a key that's used to control my house,
and I can show you very briefly now.
And even I can check that where is my family inside this living room.
PHONE BLEEPS
When I'm wondering about the location of my little boy,
I can click the little boy pictures.
And this is a kind of GPS system so in the future every family member
have a chip.
Do you like this system?
Yeah the system's great.
- Thank you very much.
- So every member of the family has a chip?
- Yes.
- On them? In them?
Ah yes, both of them is possible
and I think in the future every family member have
chip-like bracelet, or necklace or cellphone is possible.
OK.
'I can understand the thinking here,
'but I'm not convinced this surveillance future is one I want to live in
'or find these huge multi-media gizmos in my living room.'
- Is this the bathroom?
- Yes.
'But what about the bathroom of the future?
'A bathroom's a bathroom, right?'
This is a biotron,
and actually you can check your health condition with this little check machine.
- So would you like to try it?
- Yeah.
Yes, come over here and put your hand on the machine.
Put your both hands on.
Now start your health condition.
- MACHINE SPEAKS:
- 'Checking your health condition.'
And you can see the diagnosis via a magic mirror.
'Health check is done'.
Now it's done, Simon.
- How was I?
- You will see the result via magic mirror.
- Oh, Simon, congratulations you have great condition.
- My body is my temple.
- It's a good diet.
- Yes. And also they are recommending a programme for you Simon.
What did it check? Did it check my pulse, my heart rate?
Yes, in the future you can check health condition in this house and without going to hospital.
- Have you ever exercised in yoga?
- No, do I have to do that now?
So just remember you can exercise very easily. Very good.
'Straighten yourself, with your palms on your waist'.
This is called the house of the future.
How far into the future will it be before we've got all these gadgets?
- Actually now it's not available but we try to
actualise in about ten years. - Ten years? - Yes.
- Can you do that?
- I think so.
# Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
# Let me know what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars... #
'Sitting in the bedroom of the future,
'you realise that the future is - how shall we put it? -
'A question of personal taste.
'And that certain visions of the future can even seem,
'well, old fashioned.'
'I'm struck by a comment from Elliot, the mobile phone designer, about how Koreans are a nation of up-graders.'
'And the country is a test-bed for Samsung's new products.
'In Seoul everywhere you go you see people with the latest gadgets.
'It's hyper real and hyper active.
'They've got Wi-Fi and digital TV reception across Korea
'even on the underground.
'You could be standing inches away from somebody
'totally absorbed in what they're doing - watching telly, listening to music.
'But for some reason in this country, it doesn't appear rude. It just seems to be the norm.'
'It's odd to witness so many people in their own private universes.
'Are they stimulated, or insulated against the world?
'Even in public places, you sometimes get the feeling that you're on your own.'
'Koreans love their video games.
'Throughout the country you'll find PC-Bhangs,
'places where young men are engrossed in game-playing for hours on end.
'It seems alien to me.
'The last video game I played was Space Invaders in a pub in 1985.'
'Gaming's so much part of the culture here they have professional leagues
'and games are even screened on TV!
'How did Korea became this advanced digital society?
'I met up with Korean culture writer Bernard Cho.'
What is it about Korea? Is there something in the psyche
that naturally leads to gadgets and electronic devices?
Well, I think if you look at modern Korean history, Korea has developed so quickly, economically,
politically, and more importantly from a technology standpoint.
Towards the late 90s the Korean Government invested heavily into the internet, into technology,
and you saw a huge take off in terms of Korean brands developing
instead of imitative, very innovative products
you saw the whole Korean online digital society really take off, so if a new trend's gonna break
with an advanced wired and wireless society as Korea,
I mean, it's gonna spread instantly.
'Samsung have come to epitomise the development of Korea.
'Once seen as followers of Japan and the West,
'they're now one of the trendsetters. They've taken their products upmarket
'and the company's reputation appears to be source of national pride here.
'But when it's minus seven in the middle of Seoul's busiest street,
'it's a bit of a reality check.'
'And even the finest virtual reality gadget in the world can't stop it feeling unbelievably cold.'
I'm on way to Suwon, about 25 miles outside Seoul.
I'm going to Samsung's Research and Development headquarters.
'I'm curious about how Samsung have achieved their success.
'This kind of global triumph doesn't happen by accident, so what's the secret?
'At the Suwon research complex,
'26,000 scientists and company executives are developing tomorrow's technologies.
'Through R&D, last year Samsung were one of the largest holders
'of new technology patents registered in the US.
'At Suwon, they also house the whole history of the company and generations of its upgrades.'
- When were you originally based here? The sixties?
- Yeah, sixties. It's a long time ago.
Is there one innovation above all others that's led to this technological revolution?
Yes, and I believe one of the most important and a key
component to success is our chip business.
Samsung is one of the most advanced technology company
in developing and commercialise the semi-conductor chips.
That technology is really a core and the centre of
all the development and commercial gadgets.
You could say that the semi-conducted chip is at the heart of the revolution
- and is almost like the beating heart of the device as well?
- I believe so.
Because without that chip, technologies, we couldn't develop
in a very fancy and a very high technologies, gadgets like LCD TV and cell phones.
'For Samsung, it's their investment in R&D, particularly nano-technology,
'that they believe is the key to their success.
'It's nano-technology that is also the driving force behind the upgrade.
'In the electronics industry it's called Moore's law.
'Across the industry, the number of transistors manufacturers have been able to fit on a silicon chip
'has literally doubled every two years since the early late 1960s.
'It helps explain how gadgets have become smaller and cheaper,
'with exponential increases in processing power.'
If you were to close your eyes and dream,
what does the future hold for the device, for the gadget?
What kind of gadget can you imagine in five years, in ten years?
That is also one of the very critical questions
that all the electronic companies are facing.
You know, we believe one of the gadgets will prevail over other gadgets.
It should be a cell phone, should be TV, should be computer.
I don't know, but we believe the market will decide.
But one thing I can be sure is, you know the convergence era will continue.
'Before leaving, I thought I'd take advantage of the Wi-Fi signal here,
'and try Skyping home for the first time.'
Hello.
- 'Hello. Hello.'
- You all right?
'Yes. How are you?'
- All right. It works.
- 'It certainly does. It's pretty amazing.
'Shall I wave? Hello!'
HE LAUGHS
'Yeah, I think it's great.'
It's an interesting place. It's gadget crazy.
I don't know what this country would do if they had a power cut!
'Not much gadget action at this end!'
I have a very important question to ask you. Do you know how United went on last night?
'No! Would I know how United went on last night, Simon? Sorry I don't.'
You couldn't just flick Ceefax on for me, could you?
It seems a weird, given that I've only just got here, but I'll be back tomorrow.
'I know, that's pretty strange as well.
'But that's absolutely amazing, absolutely incredible to do that,
'and we should be doing more of it.
'It's great.
- 'Bye.' - Bye. See you tomorrow.
Bye. - 'Yeah. See you. Bye.'
'For me, the enthusiasm with which Korea has embraced technology is the biggest eye-opener.
'For Koreans, technology is the unquestioned road to prosperity and enlightenment.
'Back in Yorkshire the contrast with Seoul couldn't be starker. Apart from the snow, obviously.
'So, my body's back on the day job but my thoughts are still in Asia.
'In 30 years, Korea has been transformed beyond all recognition.
'It's wired to the digital future
'and is years ahead of us in its connectivity.
'What's happened in Britain in the same period?
'The way our pasts shape our lives is a subject I return to again and again as a poet.
'Growing up in the seventies, life was rather different.
'There were no mobile phones or personal stereos back then.
'What did we do all the time? How did we survive?'
This is my parents' living room,
and I used to spend a lot of time in this room,
and it was a big deal if anything ever changed.
You got a new telly or new phone or new record player.
It was a big deal, because that's how it was then. You got things and you kept them.
'Back then, objects had sentimental value. They were imbued with memories.
'I wonder if this is lost with the speed of upgrading?
'Objects were once landmarks and anchors for our pasts.
'This is an old laptop of mine. My mum uses it now.
'Today we've barely got to know an object before it's being replaced.'
'But I'm not saying we should keep living in the past.
'Back in the nineteenth century the Luddites attempted to halt
'the march of technology and people lost their lives.
'Here in Marsden you don't have to look too far to find evidence of that conflict.'
This is the grave of Enoch Taylor who had a foundry in the village.
He made cropping devices that did the work of ten men.
The Luddites smashed it up with a hammer they called Enoch and said,
"Enoch shall make em and Enoch shall break em."
So this is the confluence point of technology and anti technology, right here on my doorstep.
'These days there really aren't many people who actively reject technology.
'Even the greenest of the greens usually have a website.
'To find someone who had taken a stand led me here to Pembrokeshire.
'For the past decade, Emma Orbach has lived here without any of today's techno trappings.'
- Hello.
- Hiya.
Hello. Hiya. Simon.
- I'm Emma.
- Pleased to meet you. Hiya.
- Good. Do you want to come in? - Shall I
slip my shoes off? - Yeah, if you don't mind.
I don't suppose there could be that many people in Britain who would want to live like this, do you think?
Yes, sometimes I've thought about...
If I was discovered living like this there could be shock horror headlines.
"Middle-aged woman found in hovel in woods without electricity or water."
And so what is the difference between that scenario and how I experience living here?
And the difference is that I CHOOSE to live like this and that, for me, it's beautiful.
I'm not a victim of a circumstance that I would wish to be otherwise.
So to own a gadget would not make you any happier?
No, it makes me a bit depressed.
- Does it?
- Yes. - Why?
Because they always break down and they make a noise and they end up as landfill
and they're just part of the consumer nightmare.
It must be great to just get up in the morning and be out here in the land.
Yes, it is really beautiful,
'Emma has lived without a washing machine for 30 years.
'She's got no TV, no microwave, no radio even.
'Her one concession to communication -
'a landline two fields away.
'It's low-impact living, in extremis.
'Yet in spite of the absence of mod cons, Emma doesn't seem to want for anything.'
- So beautiful.
- Do they come out with their spikes...
No, when they're born, they're little pink rubbery things.
Have you renounced technology?
That's a really interesting question for me
and I've started to feel that I'm a conscientious objector really.
And, for me, I am not convinced that technology and gadgets,
add to the quality of my life - in fact, I think they detract from it.
What would constitute an upgrade in your world?
I can't think of anything,
apart from, yes, I do have an ambition to upgrade my trivet,
so that for my visitors... don't have wooden handles,
and that's quite a sophisticated sort of bit of innovative modern technology for me, yeah.
I wonder where you'd go to update your trivet?
Oh, I'd just get somebody to do it for me.
- Trivets R Us?
- There's somebody who makes them locally.
On the face of it, a life like this seems quite seductive almost,
especially on a sunny day,
and I think I could live without TV, and I could probably live without a washing machine
and a microwave and that kind of thing.
But I would find it very difficult to be out of contact for so long,
and so giving up the email and giving up the phone, I think, I would find impossible,
even now with my phone in my pocket I'm wondering which calls I might have missed.
So I'm going to go and check.
'Back in the blur of central London, Pembrokeshire feels like a distant era. My phone's back on.
'So I'm happy, right?'
Hi Catherine, hi. Where are you?
Yeah, I will, I'm in the station now. I'll see you in five minutes. OK, bye.
'To find out if gadgets really do make us happy, I've come to St Pancras Station
'to meet a consumer psychologist.'
We know that upgrade culture has been accelerating through the years.
What effect would you say that was having on us as people?
I would say it has a detrimental effect.
We're not aware of how it actually impacts on us
because we are on a hedonic treadmill of consumption
if you like, whereby we tend
to purchase more and more and more products, especially gadgets.
And unfortunately people have a subconscious belief
that it will make them happier and it doesn't.
Because we believe it's going to make us happier we keep purchasing the next product
in the hope that it's going to fulfil some psychological need.
But what about the specifications and the functionality?
You know, for example, on my phone now I can get email
and I couldn't do that before and that makes me, I think, happy. Am I just deluded?
It might be practical. No, I wouldn't say you're deluded,
but most of the time people don't make use
of all the kind of functions that a gadget actually has.
Salman Rushdie once said this thing that we've all got a God-shaped hole inside of us,
but I actually wonder whether this hole inside of us is actually the shape of a laptop or an iPod,
and that we won't be happy until we can stuff all this technology in
and become gods and machines at the same time.
Um, I wouldn't quite put it that way,
but I think what people are trying to seek for in life in general is some sort of happiness
and I think if they believe that these products are the route to happiness then, yes,
they might have to decide to be more fully-integrated with them somehow,
but if you don't have that belief you're probably going to back off
and see the whole thing as a rather nasty idea.
You don't see technology as being the road to paradise anyway, do you?
I don't see any consumption being the route to paradise.
'The road to paradise doesn't always follow the scenic route.
'This is Sweep Electronics Recycling Plant in Kent.'
Will every TV in the land end up somewhere like this?
Yeah, there is well-established legislation around TVs. They are classified as a hazardous waste.
If you wanted any evidence that people are upgrading all the time, this is it.
It's not long since I had a TV like this,
it's not like they are 1950s stuff.
Not at all. I recognise my model on occasions, I've actually got a glass telly still at home myself.
The scale of it is overpowering - it's just all these sort of disgorged innards just piling up.
It's not pretty, is it?
No, it's not but you can look at it the other way - it's here being recycled rather going to landfill.
It's scary to see it, but I'd much rather than not see it at all.
'This is a big operation.
'They recycle 3,000 televisions a day here.
'They are disassembled by hand and then the materials are re-used to make new TVs.
'Every day, they also process 40 tonnes of computers, devices and white goods.
'An elephants' graveyard of gadgets and gizmos.
'But what's recycled is only a fraction of what's dumped in landfill.'
It feels insane that even stuff like this that's, I mean, it's only a few years old
and it would have cost thousands of pounds, just chucked in a tip.
It feels like a kind of madness as if, you know, it can't possibly carry on like this.
Well, it's the end of the road for the Palm PDA.
I would be lying if I said that I was sorry to see it go.
And it's going to that place where all Palm PDAs go at the end of their life,
it's Palm PDA heaven it's going to - it's going in the crusher.
'I'm glad the PDA has gone to a sound environmental heaven.
'But will it stop me buying the next, new thing?
'Whether it is frustrating or useful, or simply a beautiful object
'to impress our friends with, we continue to embrace new technology ever closer.
'The economic imperative tends to drive innovation forward.
'The cutting edge of technology is constantly changing
'and the possibilities are extraordinary.'
We get very emotionally attached to our gadgets,
but is there a future where we get physically attached to them as well,
to the point where we might want to upgrade ourselves?
Is there a future where technology is not just at our fingertips but in our fingertips?
Maybe that's the next frontier.
'In the last decade, what was once science fiction has become science fact.
'Computer chips have been implanted in the cochlea to restore hearing to deaf children.
'Researchers are working on chips attached to the retina to restore sight loss.
'Here at Cambridge University's Institute of Biotechnology,
'they're developing sensors to be implanted inside the body to give doctors real-time information
'about proteins and molecules inside the bloodstream.'
Your first work in this field was with chips, wasn't it?
- That's correct.
- Are these the kind of chips
- that you were working on?
- These are the chips
that we developed a few years ago.
So this chip would be, what, implanted into the body?
This particular chip is exactly that.
We designed this to monitor glucose and to be implanted within the body,
and you can see it's a relatively small size chip
and it would be implanted either in a location like here or perhaps around the midriff.
The problem with this technology is it's actually quite expensive
and that's why we stopped it,
to see whether we could find cheaper alternatives to monitor glucose
and other metabolites in the body with a much simpler system.
'The scientists are developing two types of sensor -
'one using light, and one using sound.
'The light device is a hologram
'produced by lasers that fire onto specially developed polymers.
'The hologram changes colour in response to changes in the blood chemistry.
'With acoustics, a radio signal is sent to the tiny transparent sensor,
'which then sends back the blood information.'
That just looks to me like a contact lens or something.
Yeah, it is actually a quartz disc made out of silica.
And that goes under someone's skin?
- Correct.
- And transmits information about what?
One of the major applications of this is to monitor glucose in blood of diabetics in real time.
If we can do that and control the blood glucose far more precisely
than you would if you were saying pricking your finger say five or so times a day,
then I think what you'd have is the ability to control the diabetes far better,
and you would not suffer a lot of the consequences of diabetes,
like blindness, for example, and also problems with the kidney.
'For now, this sensor technology remains experimental.
'In the future, the hope is it will improve diagnosis and treatment
'for conditions such as stress, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis.
'The sensors could help patients better manage their symptoms.'
Would you describe this kind of technology as sort of an upgrade to the human body?
In the sense that you're not going to suffer from all the side reactions
that you'd normally have, of course it's an upgrade,
but there are other applications of that. We've been looking at some sports applications,
bearing in mind we have the Olympics in 2012, and that the elite athletes are interested in monitoring
their glucose and lactate levels because this determines their performance.
If you could monitor that and have some control over that during training,
you could upgrade their performance.
Does that move then to, you know, being able to measure somebody's state of mind?
In terms of measuring their state of mind,
it depends on, can we find something to measure which would be an indicator of their state of mind?
If the answer's yes to that, if we could find a measure of that,
some chemical measure of it, we could in theory do the same thing.
This is a long way into the future, of course.
Technology plays a central role in our imaginations.
But just how close do we want our relationship to become?
We've placed our faith in these bewildering ingenious objects
to the point where we'd be lost and angry without them.
I've got my gadgets, though, and after decades of upgrading they seem perfect to me.
So I can be happy with my lot.
At least, that is, until tomorrow.