Techno-Civilization and Its Discontents (The downside of mind-numbing technology.)

The American Prowler ^ | 6/20/2006 | Brandon Crocker

[Jaysun]

If this man is nostalgic let him scribble away. Many, including myself, still write letters. But it's a bit absurd to bemoan the faster and easier in favor of what he sees as romantic. People still know how to do arithmetic and write the letters of the alphabet. To spend 30 minutes doing what can be done in half the time with a small machine is ridiculous.

[Jaysun]

If this man is nostalgic let him scribble away. Many, including myself, still write letters. But it's a bit absurd to bemoan the faster and easier in favor of what he sees as romantic. People still know how to do arithmetic and write the letters of the alphabet. To spend 30 minutes doing what can be done in half the time with a small machine is ridiculous.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Every so often we should all put down the calculator and turn off the computer and do things with pen and paper and with our minds,

Is he going to make the pen out of reeds, mix the ink and skin the lamb to make parchment?

The illusion that things done an older way are more virtuous then things done the new way is romantic pap. I really doubt Brandon could knap a hand axe. What is he going to do when all the metal rusts?

If he wants to waste his time standing in banks filling out forms that is his choice but it is no more "preserving the ways of the Ancients" then having a coke rather then a cherry seven up is.

The Ancient would have been to busy knaping his axe to spend time standing around a bank.

[JRandomFreeper]

Is he going to make the pen out of reeds, mix the ink and skin the lamb to make parchment?

I can do that...(and I have oak gall available) but I can also type > 55 wpm. Lets see. Get more work done more quickly? Or die at 30, a worn out old man...

2006 is a great year. 2106 will be better. I hate being a primitive, with only a manual interface to the internet.

/johnny

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Well at least there are three of us that like progress. :)

It is amazing what people will use to give props to their ego. "Oh I fill out my bank statements by hand. Hurray for me. See my shining halo?"

What kind of failure do you have to be in your own eyes that you have to waste a hour doing make work to feel good about yourself?

[NonLinear]

The illusion that things done an older way are more virtuous then things done the new way is romantic pap.

Ah, but it is not always the final number that tells the story. Sometimes the form of the equation speaks volumes, while the final result only mumbles a single short quotation.

dP/P = RT (-v_out/V) dt

tells me how this system will behave over time, what it's limits are, which model will fit best. This system will start at an initial condition, follow an eponential decay over time and asymptotically approach a limiting value. The change in time will always be proportional to the condition at that time. It will be well behaved, bounded and continuous. It will be easy to model.

42, while correct for a specific case, tells me the batteries are still good in my calculator, and that Douglas Adam's life was not in vain.

[JRandomFreeper]

There will always be idiots. First thing to do is make the world more complicated, dangerous, and productive. That should improve the overall IQ and willingness to work. By attrition, if nothing else. ;>)

/johnny

[lesser_satan]

Absolutely. Modern technology just allowed you to double-post in seconds what would havd taken much longer had you had to write it twice longhand. (kidding, of course)

[Jaysun]

Absolutely. Modern technology just allowed you to double-post in seconds what would havd taken much longer had you had to write it twice longhand. (kidding, of course)

I always write my post in longhand on a small chalkboard prior to typing them. This, I believe, makes me superior to most others.

[lesser_satan]

ROTFLMAO! I have the receptionist type them on her Selectric and proofread them before I hit "post".

[lesser_satan]

So when can I get wet-wired?

[Jaysun]

ROTFLMAO! I have the receptionist type them on her Selectric and proofread them before I hit "post".

LOL! Wow, you win.

I sometimes have my wife repeat my message on a Dictaphone so I can meditate on my words for several minutes before releasing them to mankind. When I want her to do this I yell, "come wench, and record my tidings that I might reflect on them." Then she dashes into the room and bows constantly, much like the Japanese do when meeting someone at the airport.

[Captainpaintball]

That's the problem with modern techno-society. We have allowed ourselves to become dependent on technology to the extent that it has reduced our confidence and, indeed, our ability, to perform basic tasks without it.

Technology will make the nanny-state in this country (and its Socialist/Communist alter-ego) more efficient and more powerful. Look at what China can do with their internet. Look at the survielance measures (phone taps, street cameras, in-auto computers, injectable chips) that could be utilized to control a populace, especially one getting as dumb, ignorant, and lazy as ours.

[lesser_satan]

When I'm done I yell "Fetch me a concubine, my chattle, I need pleasuring"! I then beat them mercilessly with the same unabridged dictionary I just used to look up the spelling of "chattle".

[upchuck]

I always write my post in longhand on a small chalkboard prior to typing them. This, I believe, makes me superior to most others.

And I bet your chalkboard has a spell/grammar checker, doesn't it?

But is it flameproof? J

[upchuck]

"come wench, and record my tidings that I might reflect on them."

I have found carving my thoughts in stone tables with a chisel and mallet give me sufficient time to muse about what I'm writing. And the effort involved in error correction has greatly enhanced my spelling and grammer skills.

[upchuck]

grammer should be grammar.

DAMN! Time to break out the cement and trowel.

[dolander2002]

They don't even teach how to count back change anymore. It gripes me to have someone hand me the change from a purchase and they dump it in my hand, then they look surprised when I count it.

I think the point is that it is important to teach how to think in solving problems. For example, students who learn how to make a tool by hand before learning how to do the computerized version are going to do better and go further than students who are never taught the hands-on method.

But hey, what do I know? I just donated my selectric (a lovely persimmon color on which I could type 80 WPM) and threw away my books on using a rotary calculator. Might as well pitch all the dozens of 50's and 60's LPs and let the old 45's and 78's go as frisbees as needles are hard to come by for the old phonograph and I know damn well that none of the younger folks would have a clue as to how to change one.

I appreciate technology. It lets me be sarcastic to so many more people in such a short time.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Modern technology just allowed you to double-post in seconds what would havd taken much longer had you had to write it twice longhand.

And it took you milliseconds to have fun with a complete stranger 100's (if not 1,000's) of miles away! The past was not all that it was cracked up to be.