Technology - V - Limits

Of course, we don't don't really need much technology to survive. Technology has always been used to expand our world, so we hairless apes could live in colder climates, gather food and hunt animals, then to later grow food and raise animals.
We made clothes to protect against the wind and cold, and so it goes.

But all it takes to be happy is just good food, a nurturing environment and maybe just a smile, a kind word from a friend, no big deal.

Life is good.

Technology - Part IV - Memory

And what, pray tell, is the most defining characteristic of modern technology? I'll say Memory.

Cheap, Vast and Available

None of these three words applied to data storage twenty years ago. Not even ten years ago, which is about when things really started to move. This wealth of information has become the catalyst of change in technology today. It's a done deal already (although there is still a bottleneck in information distribution systems) for the servers and search mechanisms (thanks Google!) have now leapfrogged ahead of the rest of the cyber-universe. Sometimes it seems as if we puny humans with our kludgy gizmos won't ever be able catch up.

Knowledge and Understanding

Both concepts cease to exist without memory. And when all the histories of the world are available at the touch of a finger, how will we separate the true from the false? Perhaps a more realistic description of that dilemma would be how do we assign validity to data? Actually, a scale might work, a percentage of 1 to 100, perhaps. Complicated issues could have multiple scales. A Wiki-style grading, or even a totally automatic ranking (Google again) could further winnow the seeds from the chaff. (How quaint, yet appropriate, is that analogy?)

Stories

And thus we end up back at the beginning. Oral and visual histories have certainly been the defining element of humanity for hundreds of thousands of years. Art and literature are tangible forms of memory. A good story will find an audience, art will have its patrons, and so the dance will continue. The delivery systems may change rapidly, but our physical organism will do so only slowly, within its biological limitations. Life is brief, so let us use the new technology to expand our consciousness for the future has already begun.

Technology - Part III - TV

After Radio's heyday, Television became the dominant force in "instant" media. One of my earliest memories is of the day the TV came home. It must have been about 1953 or 1954, it was truly a magic box. The picture was small, its reception was erratic, but it presented me with views of a greater world beyond my block. Its personalities became my friends, its dramas became my dreams. There was a surprising amount of quality programming then: variety shows had the pick of vaudeville comics, recording artists and Broadway actors. Alfred Hitchcock presented his little 20 minute morality plays, Rod Serling pushed the boundaries of the medium with his Twilight Zone, and big-budget plays were sponsored by Hallmark and Kraft.

The sixties ushered the widespread use of color TV. I remember spending a lot of time in the Sears department store's TV showroom. Color TV wasn't very good then, and it was mostly just white men in suits anyway- although as the decade wore on, the use of color became more prevalent (excessive?) with pop-art, flower power and the Vietnam war, brought to every home in living color. It was the era of the sit-coms (I'll never get those hours which I spent watching The Beverly Hillbillies back again!)

After I moved out on my own in the seventies, I lost the TV habit, and it wasn't until the late eighties before I actually got a "proper" modern color set. Evidently, I didn't miss much.

Now the rise of internet video has become a threat to, and has even supplanted TV for some applications. Like radio, TV won't go away, but will get a smaller and smaller share of the overall media market.

Hmmm... I wonder what's on?

Technology - Part II - Radio

The first modern mass media was the radio. It was qualitatively different from newspapers, in that the user was a passive recipient- unlike a newspaper, which had to be be read, the radio was just there, a voice in one's ear, and perhaps the greatest vehicle for advertising ever invented.

With the advent of the internet, all of the previous mass media forms- print, radio, and television have been incorporated but the interface is still a bit clunky, but it is quickly getting better in all aspects. But it requires more user-interaction than those other forms of media. The user has to navigate, make selections, and pay attention, the passive experience of TV and Radio has been replaced by an addiction model. We crave our "Fix", be it Facebook, Twitter, email, and yes, even blogging.

Are the results worth it?

Technology - Is There Any Tech Writing Worth Reading?

A rhetorical question, to be sure. I often wonder if there is, especially after reading about yet another undistinguished netbook ("Comes in Pink!") or gadget that I can't imagine anyone using ("Hamburger shaped USB Jumpdrive!".) Still, I have links to those sites which cover tech and I read them nearly every day. Of late the site Gizmodo has been running a superlative series of articles by Aimee Mullins, who is a double amputee and has been in the forefront of the development and use of modern prosthetics.

She's had three posts so far, each one exploring issues in the use, acceptance and personal considerations of devices which enable people to perform to the limit of their abilities. In an era of increasing war-related injuries and the parsimonious attitudes of insurers, she cogently shows how almost all of us will sooner or later have to use an "aid" even if it is only a pair of glasses, and how current attitudes only diminish the humanity in all of us, "disabled" or not.

Photo: via Gizmodo, A pair of Aimee's prosthetic legs

Maggie's Farm

Mulder's Farm, rural South Dakota, 1995

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I wake in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane.
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
He hands you a dime,
He asks you with a grin
If you're havin' a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
They sing while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

~ Bob Dylan

Hello Walls

Mulder farm, rural South Dakota, 1995

Hello walls, how things go for you today?

Don't you miss her, since she upped and walked away?

And I'll bet you dread to spend another lonely night with me,

But lonely walls I'll keep you company

Hello window, well I see that you're still here.

Aren't you lonely, since our darling disappeared?

Well look here is that a teardrop in the corner of your pane?

Now don't you try to tell me that it's rain.

She went away, and left us all alone, the way she planned.

Yes, we'll have to learn to get along without her if we can.

Hello ceiling, I'm gonna stare at you a while.

You know I can't sleep, so won't you bear with me awhile?

We must all stick together or else I'll lose my mind,

I've got a feeling she'll be gone a long, long, time...

~ Willie Nelson