Chips & Wires

Too much information… that’s how it feels every time I go on the computer. Facebook, email (what was my password for that other email address?) Blogs, RSS feeds, tweets and beeps and buzzes. Wait a minute my computer is huffing at me…. O yes now I remember, it’s my daughters instant messaging thing that I’m supposed to ignore. Ah for the days when all it would say is “You’ve got mail” (Does anyone still use AOL?)

It really is kind of spooky how this thing has a life of its own. I still freak out when the IT guy moves my cursor from the other side of the world. Even freakier is when the machine freezes up and your only recourse is to turn it off and even then it stays on. I swear, one time I even unplugged it and its blue screen stared steadily on, mocking my supposed superiority. I get shivers every time I think about that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the line that HAL delivers in his smarmy mechanical voice “I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave.”

These machines… they seem to have a life of their own. And yet…Here I am reaching out into the very real and concrete world of people through a cold and ethereal technological tool. Would I prefer a person sitting beside me in front of the fire or watching the sunset in an adorondack chair overlooking the bay chatting? Sure, but then again I couldn’t talk to people half way round the globe without this set of chips and wires.

So here is a question I really wonder about: “What are the benefits and liabilities of this world of technology we now live with daily?”

P.S. I’d love to hear from the Luddites∗ but they probably won’t be on line. Are there still people in America that don’t have computers? How would I find out?