Module 5 Red Queens and Increasing Returns

When I decided to rent a DVD for my science fiction project, the 2002 version of Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report, my first choice was to find it on NetFlix. I signed up for the site just for this video and the site either did not have the video or it was not available for instant streaming so I cancelled my membership. I then tried to find the video on youTube, or anywhere on the internet but I could not locate it. I ended up going to Target and buying the video. I believe the current competition between DVD’s and video-on-demand is an example of an increasing return or Red Queens. When “two innovation hit the market at about the same time. By chance, one technology gets locked in and drives the other to extinction.” I feel that many people are attached to their mobile technology so they can watch a streaming video at their convenience with the use of online videos. There use to be DVD rental stores but many have closed due to the Netflix and Redbox that are more convenient to people. McLuhan has four stages technology goes through which are enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval, and reversal. Right now I feel like DVD’s and video on demand are in all four stages at the same time. Video-on-demand is doing what DVD’s did but in a new convenient way. It takes away the inconvenience of driving somewhere to get a movie and also takes out the late fees that occur. It is rekindles the convenience of videos instead of going to the movie theatre and finally it reverses the want to watch movies first before they come out on the television. “Huge competition between two technologies; in the process, all other competitors are left behind.” Reference Thornburg, D. (2008b). Emerging technologies and McLuhan’s Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.