No, this isn’t another of my rants…it is more an observation of how much we’ve changed over the years…
Many people are not well versed in much of the cutting edge of consumer technology (let alone technology in general); we are growing less and less aware of earlier technology. There is a lot of 19th and early 20th century technology which most people consider complicated (cars, refrigerators, radios, airplanes) even though many of the underlying fundamentals are covered in high schools (at least, they used to be covered there…). There are older forms of technology, such as the use of cogs, cams, pulleys, belts, levers, and gears…most people dismiss these as old fashioned (while not understanding them at all)…this is the stuff of…let’s say, Leonardo da Vinci. Finally, there are plenty of forms of fundamental technologies out there which were the cutting edge over 1,000 years ago…how many people do you know who can light a fire without a match or a lighter?
We live in a world which is rife with technology, all of the things which we deal with are intrinsically technological…I’m sitting in a coffee shop where I can see such technology (in use) as a Kindle eReader, iPods, iPhones and smartphones in general, Laptops, NetBooks, and iPads. I see people wearing all kinds of high tech shoes, wearing complex high tech clothing, and so on…
So, I wonder if there is some sort of a moral onus placed upon us to take some sort of responsibility for the tools which populate our lives. How deeply any of us should delve into these complicated areas is missing a few important points…anything more than nearly zero would be an improvement.
Conversely, are we far too involved in gadgets, in technology which is not necessarily needed, but only wanted? As you might easily presume, I don’t have any answers to these questions, but think that there is some value in considering these and quite a few related questions.
For instance:
How much of modern life is based solely upon the understructure of what technology provides us?
Is there some sort of a happy medium (whatever that may be…)?
Is there a need to address the skewed socialization which can come from too much life in the virtual and not enough in the real?
What does the future bode for us?
I think that you could say that we think we understand technology… I imagine that some of you may have some perspectives on this topic…I’d love to hear them…
