From Arthur C. Clarke’s Profiles of the Future: "...The automobile is so much a part of our existence that it seems hard to believe that it is a child of our century. Looked at dispassionately, it is an incredible device, which no sane society would tolerate. If anyone before 1900 could have seen the approaches to a modern city on a Monday morning or Friday evening, he might have imagined that he was in Hell -- and he would not be far wrong. ...Yet, despite the appalling expense in spiritual as well as material values (look what Detroit has done to aesthetics) our civilization could not survive for ten minutes without the automobile."

I would like to first address the keenness of Mr. Clarke’s observations. The automobile is an entrenched pillar of our culture, and yet its dominance has been so swift that we still haven’t quite caught up with its impact in the literary or spiritual arenas. Think of the symbolic weight behind other human inventions: the sword, or the mirror. At this point it doesn't matter whether these concepts were ever wrapped around physical objects in battle fields or bedrooms; to invoke them with any kind of emphasis unleashes a deluge of collected thoughts, stories and concepts from the folds of history. Allegorically, cars represent little more than glorified ox-carts, and yet they have actually, literally transformed our culture, almost overnight, riding the undefined expectations of a new generation. Hell, indeed.

I would like to draw attention now to the Spigot, the Pod Form, which has only recently sprung into our society, yet already occupies at least one shirt or trouser pocket (probably both) of every civilian walking down the street today. This has really only happened in the last five years, and if we haven’t finished processing the cultural impact of the car, we haven’t begun to blink at the social and psychological ramifications of the ubiquitous Pod Form. Most people probably haven't even recognized a specific “pod form” emerging from the various devices that occupy the balance of their time: the cell phones, Game Boys, “iPods”, GPS navigation devices, and, of course, spigots. Though it may take thirty years or more, once we as a society finally embrace the Pod Form for what it really is, we will collectively gasp in awe as witnesses to the birth of the first new archetype since the mid 1700's.

Cellular telephone pods have already done more for communication then Clarke’s automobiles will ever do for transportation. Cars have only made travel more expedient, an evolutionary, if not welcome achievement. It is tempting to think that cell phones likewise only make it *easier* to speak with other people who are far away, when in fact they have conquered the mundane limitations of spatial proximity entirely. With cellular techonology, the vast and unconquerable notion of Space has been removed from the equation of human interaction. The parallel achievement in transportation would be nothing short of instantaneous teleportation. Perhaps we will see this advancement in the near future, but that is really none of my business.

Pods are also making ground in every other avenue of the human experience. It is understandable that some may be skeptical of my claims now, as the pod form has only recently been introduced to society, and has not yet begun approaching its full potential or cultural impact. We live in the age three years after the invention of the printing press, where many likely scorned its usefulness to a society of illiterates. The printing press defined a need for literacy; likewise, the possibilities bestowed by pods will engender a society that can use them. Already we have seen the early influence of pods in the moral and literary arenas, and still we only stand at the precipice of what inconceivable change lies ahead.

Pods, soon, will break ground on the formidable terrain of Time. What this means for consumers remains to be seen. The necessary advancements rely somewhat on market forces, but inevitably cannot avoid the great thrust of history, pushing them eagerly into the public consciousness. Societal forces conspired some hundred years ago to produce the light bulb, which forever changed human interaction with Day and Night. But the light bulb merely represents the technological evolution of the oil lamp. Fourty years ago the computer emerged from the nebulous research of various unrelated projects, immediately demanding a new paradigm for understanding intelligence, data-flow, and the human mind. The Pod Form is a wholly new symbol, and fully-realized will provide us the keys to an even greater, more deliriously sought-after understanding: the inner workings of the human soul. This intellectual reformation will quietly destroy our pedestrian notions of Space and Time, fixed as they are in the grid of quantum reality, replacing them with more malleable counterparts. Today, our pods allow us to watch little movies or send brief and poorly articulated messages. Tomorrow they will promote our relationship with history from idle observers to active and dynamic participants. We are hurtling uncontrollably toward the future, and I will be The Historian.