An odd machination approached the bird and the earth-bound pigs; one that had been dismissed as nothing but a novelty, a toy for those (who had the time and money) to play with. The machine said, "You have all forgotten the key: choice."
The machine looked up to the bird. "You have, at best, two choices to deliver to your people. I have thousands, if not more." Then the machine looked to the pigs. "You can only deliver one choice to your people, and you haven't even succeeded at that."
The bird said to the machine, "But you only have limited bandwidth with which to work! And your programming isn't unique!"
The machine replied, "Your bandwidth isn't devoid of issues, either. Many of your listeners have noticed changes in your sound quality over the years due to your limitations. My bandwidth issues, however, can be overcome. Neither can you call your programming unique. You offer very little that the pigs have offered over the years. I, on the other hand, offer anything that anyone wishes to broadcast. Different things for different people, many options for anyone to choose from, much of which has never before been heard. Not all of it is for everyone, but it's not designed to be. You offer nothing more than a few hundred options of only what you believe people want to hear, and even at that you haven't been entirely successful."
The pigs said to the machine, "But like the bird, you can't be local! You can't be relevant to geographical regions!"
"Who told you that lie?" asked the machine. "I can be as local as anyone wants me to be. All they have to do is use me to program local content and sell to local advertisers. I can be as regional as anyone wants me to be, as national as anyone wants me to be, or as international as anyone wants me to be. I've already demonstrated my successes in localism, but you've chosen to ignore them in favor of the mistaken belief that you can do it better. Did you not hear what the bird told you? You've become nothing more than a local delivery vehicle for the same national product. You've chosen to make yourselves irrelevant while telling yourselves you're invincible, yet now that your time has passed, you fail to see why it's passed. Even the bird has realized he needs me... he's been using my abilities to deliver his most popular content in high quality to my people for several years now. You still use me only at a minimum because you believe me to be nothing more than a fad. It's that ignorant arrogance that has led to your demise."
The bird said to the machine, "But people still can't take you anywhere they go. I have that advantage."
"Not for long," replied the machine. "I have, for some time now, been preparing networks that will deliver my content to mobile devices wirelessly the world over. In vehicles, in homes, on the street... no matter where the people are, I will be there. You are still limited to North America. And you," the machine looked to the pigs, "are still confined to wherever your transmitters are. People can only take your content as far as your signal goes. My people can take my content half a world away, no matter what it is or where it originates from."
Being put in their place, the pigs wandered off into the sunset, never to be heard from again. From that day forward, the bird and the machine peacefully coexisted and shared with each other, and the people of the world were much better off for it.
