Past futurism would have us believe that we live in a round-the-clock wonderworld where everyone is connected and liking it that way. Contemporary society, however, is nothing like that. The present is not the future we once thought it would be. It never is.

Today a catch-phrase is stuck in the mouths and minds of those who find themselves yearning for more in the pseudo-techworld we coexist in. 24/7, a phrase both concise and catchy, has wormed its way into the consciousness of so many.

You hear it slip from the lips of someone just around the corner, dangling in the air a split-second before dissipating into the ambient hummmmmm droning on about us.

It whispers promises of a world in which everything is always.

Alas, the mind is trapped by the flesh; unwilling to escape the linear boundaries of time we are bound to beds for at least a few hours a day.

In reality it is a silly piece of cyber-wannabe-culture spoken by trend-followers in a culture which isn't. 24/7 does not exist, even on the beloved net of high-tech promises.

Everything shuts down. Everyone sleeps.

Even when we live in a world which is truly 24/7 we will not be able to take part in it all the time. Alas, the mind is trapped by the flesh; unwilling to escape the linear boundaries of time we are bound to beds for at least a few hours a day.

You find these dead hours on the internet, too. Live-feed Web-Cams showing nothing but blackness as its owner slumbers. Sites promising conversation showing nothing as the netizens of the night pack it in with the break of dawn.

Then there is the "real" world.

Liquor stores (at least in B.C.) are still closed on Sundays, and only open 9am-11pm the other six days of the week. In fact, besides the occasional air-conditioned, fluorescent lit Tim Horton's or other brandnameless truck stop, the world is quiet at night.

The metropolis, too, slumbers. All you seem to find in its wee hours are darkly clad figures standing on street corners and prostitutes selling their wares. Zombies, all. Some restaurants and stores are open to the world, but these are a rare few in the promised land of yesterday.

So, in the future, what will the true 24/7 world look like? A line from Rimbaud comes to mind: "Nothing, nothing at all like its present appearance."

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