Once upon a time, people would travel great distances, and during their journey, many would look out the window or the back of the seat in front of them to pass the time. The younger passengers would often play "kick the seat," a game that was not so popular with adults, seated in the rows directly in front of the children.  Some passengers would carry thick stacks of paper with words printed on them, and the paper stacks were attached to a binding and had a cover with bold lettering and exciting pictures; you can still go to museums or libraries to examine what the ancients used to carry with them.

 

Then one day airlines added movies that everyone could watch at one time for about $5.  Some passengers were happy, but many were not, so airlines added satellite TV, and passengers had to pay about $7 (or more) for 40-50 channels.  Some passengers were happy but many were not, and the airlines added lots of movies and TV shows, from which passengers could choose to watch at any time during the journey.  Many passengers were happy.  There is no way to make the journey more pleasant, or is there?

 

Then one day some engineers had the crazy idea that all the passengers on a plane should be able to watch the programs they love to watch in their homes.  Surely, this is madness or the type of thing that happens only in an episode of MacGyver.  The engineers, confident in their counting abilities, realized that if they could count the number of planes in a circle at each minute, and count the number of passengers on each plane in that circle, then they could figure out how to deliver the movies and TV programs that individual passengers enjoy watching in their home.  But surely, just because engineers are good at counting doesn't mean that the system they will come up with will work for regular working-folk passengers.

 

Engineers often have great ideas that, when implemented, are affordable only for Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or that neighbor who is always driving a new car.  Well, these engineers were determined to develop system architectures that would work for anybody who carried around about $5 in pocket change, and they toiled away on their computers looking at thousands of numbers on nights and weekends for more than 2 years.  They had to learn new languages, languages which no human can speak and only computers understand.  After getting bleary-eyed from looking at so many numbers, they had a "eureka" moment - it is, indeed, possible for all passengers with about $5 in pocket change, including Mr. Bezos, Mr. Gates, Mr. Buffett, and Mr Fancy-Pants New-Car Driving Neighbor (if they are carrying around pocket change) to watch their favorite Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or HBO Now programs, while traveling great distances, and they submitted patents that capture the key ideas. 

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This story can have a happy of ending, if we take the lessons that the engineers have learned and apply them in the right way.  It's only a matter of time and effort.  Then all passengers can continue watching the movies and TV shows they enjoy watching on the ground. It's hard to imagine a happier ending.