Book Review: Kitten Clone

Having had the chance to spend some time with Douglas Coupland, I have an even deeper and richer respect and appreciation of Kitty Clone’s content. So many portions of the book were convicting and put into words what I often have thought or felt. His commentary on our current state is so true and convicting.

Some gems that I pulled out:

“I’m discombobulated this morning because I forgot my iPhone, so I have that homesick, disconnected feeling you get when you realize you’re phonemes.”

“I miss my pre-Internet brain.”

“Starbucks has the world’s largest Internet footprint.”

“Fort McMurray, Alberta (population 76,000) has North America’s highest video streaming rate per capita.”

“The good thing about always being connected is that you’re always connected. But the downside of being connected is that you’re always connected. Internet, you are on woeful and perplexing minx.”

“As Deb and I trudge through toward the solar farm, I realize something weird: neither of us is doing anything except walking. We’re not texting or checking emails or making phone calls. We are merely looking towards the chilly, slate-grey solar farm’s panels. It occurs to me that we are committing what is possibly one of the most awful new sins of our era: being unproductive.”

“Sometimes I look at those dogs people tether to posts outside the local grocery store, those dutiful dogs waiting for their masters to emerge so they can complete their canine pack animal sense of self, and I think that mobile phones and the Internet have collectively turned us all into dogs outside the Safeway. Cats must look at those dogs and say to themselves, ‘Man, what losers.’”

I love the use of a character who travels in time and gives such a great commentary on the internal desires of people’s desire to create instant messaging, Instagram etc.

Douglas covers the future as well and looks at commercials in the past that attempted futurology with predicting “faxing from the beach” (Smartphones, Laptops and wireless) and “tucking in your child from your phone” (Skype, FaceTime etc.).

This is a must read for anyone working in the Internet industry in anyway. It’s a brilliant read to get a pulse of the influence of the internet and where the Internet could be going.

by Darian Kovacs