Though technology and nature are usually considered opposites, Digital Slobs know they have plenty in common.

Both move from the simple to the advanced, with current and future breakthroughs dependent upon the successful evolution of their distant ancestors.

Go back far enough in time, and you can connect the dots to seemingly unrelated things. It can be a fun game to play.

Smoke signals begat telegraph begat instant messaging.

Big Bang begat Milky Way begat Hoover Dam.

Mr. Microphone begat karaoke begat “;American Idol.”;

Ear mite begat tapeworm begat Geraldo Rivera.

I was reminded of this phenomenon last week, when another potential example hit me a few hours after registering for a new online service:

Cave drawings begat Shakespeare begat xtranormal.com.

Currently in free beta, this Web site aims to “;bring movie-making to the people”; by providing a browser-based, drag-and-drop interface that allows you to write, produce, cast and direct computer-animated actors and present their performances to the public. Alfred Hitchcock, who once said “;actors are cattle,”; would be in steer heaven.

Creating video has been exponentially more difficult than audio. In fact, by now we're all voice-talent regulars, routinely recording short performances for small audiences through a medium called voice mail.

But as any lighting director for a Renee Zellweger movie will tell you, video can be tricky. This is why most of us who aren't teens eager to flash lower-back tattoos through Web cams never bother to do it.

Xtranormal.com, however, seems well on its way toward coaxing us all into at least the shallow end of the pool, knowing that over in the deep end might be the ability to create our own Shrek-level animations.

Once you register, the service is self-explanatory, presenting pop-up windows that guide each step along the way.

Simply click “;make movies”; and you're brought to a browser-based desktop that asks you to pick your characters and setting. Then, a chatlike box asks you to write dialogue and drag-and-drop camera angles and facial and animation cues anywhere in your script.

You choose from a limited supply of voices and languages, from “;American English Male”; to “;Quebec French Female.”;

Once you've gotten enough plotted out to “;rehearse,”; the site compiles all your directions and performs your movie.

After an hour or so of tweaking, I created a simple, 20-second video with relative ease (which you can see on the site, or at digitalslobpod.com).

Of course, since it's in beta, there are significant limitations. The only film styles available are a kind of industrial-video black-and-white, or a what seems like a Fisher Price/Legoland universe.

You can have only one character or two, and for now, at least, all seem paralyzed from the waist down, unable to do anything other than stand and talk, or sit and talk.

While this puts a remake of “;Lawrence of Arabia”; or “;Indiana Jones”; out of reach, “;My Dinner With Andre”; or any episode of “;Days of Our Lives”; is doable.

Clearly, begetting is back.