Man Vs. Machine

     
       As you know, from time to time I feel like getting dirty. Sometimes I sling it, sometimes I shovel it and sometimes I end up eating it. I may do a bit of all three here on this one. As the modern age has evolved we have found new ways to damage our children and ruin our culture and society as a whole. The GO GREEN movement and the Vegetarian and fad diet culture as well as the WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT mentality is starting to make American society rather scary. Cell phones that allow people to play games, instant message, call co workers, and download directions all at the same time have added to the pressures of American workaholics. Let's face it folks, we all work way too hard and we could use a vacation.

        I work as a soldier, and I'm sure that my experiences at work are rather different than anyone NOT a soldier. In some ways I'm sure my "normal" day of work is a cake walk for the average middle class working single adult with no children. Then again, those days that make me want to rip my hair out may seem like a friggin freight train wreck to some of you. The point is, this isn't an article where I cry on your shoulders and tell you how hard it is to be a soldier. I admit that my life can be pretty easy going sometimes. That being said, let us recall the days of old when kids in school weren't allowed to have any sort of personal electronic devices. Not because they weren't available to people, but because Mom and Dad didn't have the money for that crap to use themselves. Now everyone has a cell phone, even toddlers have little cell phone toys and there are getting to be cell phones that kids in elementary school can use that have a button to call home or whichever parent and one for 911. Advances like this make us think how safe our kids are and how comfy we can rest knowing that our children can call for help at the touch of a button.

         If you haven't seen the movie THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY... Now would be a great time to shut the computer down and find a copy of it.

         In the days before everyone had a cell phone, most people had a home phone that plugged into the wall and if you were lucky as a teenager you might have been able to put a hand set in your room which you could use when your parents weren't on the line. This made coordinating things a bit more difficult than they are now, or did it? Pryor plans and a well thought out idea of how you wanted things done made it possible to make one phone call one time and get the results you were after. Given an example, I was going to plan a barbeque at the park with some friends. Maybe some friends at work were going to go, and at work we sorted out that we would go but weren't sure who had what or who could bring what. Once I got home and inventoried my fridge I could call up my first friend assess what he was going to bring and give him some suggestions on what to bring. Then I could call my other friend and do the same. No muss, no fuss, simple. Now a days we would be driving to the park remembering that we forgot ketchup and while driving try to shoot a text off to whoever to stop on the way and get it. This all seems well and good but when you are texting and driving.... whoops. Consider the strain on certain lower level employees with demanding bosses. NOW a boss can be as demanding and unrealistic as possible and the potential employee needs to be three times as flexible. Stress beyond stress. We have advanced society so fast and so dangerously that we are causing more stress than we are alleviating with our brilliant new toys. How many passwords to you need to remember on a daily basis? I personally have a book with all my passwords in it. WHY?! Why must I have a book with fifty different passwords in it?! I thought all this security would make life easier, places still get hacked, credit cards are still stolen along with identities.

         What is the point? Every time we come up with a problem, someone wanting to make a quick buck and have some fun with science and technology is busy trying to find a quick easy solution. It must be tough creating gadgets to make the world a better place. How civilized we must all be with such amazing advances in technology. (Refer to the movie HERE). I'm not saying we should all live like cave men, I'm just saying maybe old Issac had a point. Azimov wrote some amazing books and I tip my hat to the man who saw the simple truth that one day our curiosity would cause us to work twice as hard. Now if we are smart, the idea would be to take these new advances in technology and try to find a way to make them LESS complex. Find a way to make things better without being so ridiculously impossible for the average person to understand that we break it. Cell phones are great, but lets be real here folks, how much pressure do they add to the average adult? Now my boss can call me 24 hours a day and I have to answer my phone. If I don't respond within ten minutes to a text I get threatened with being in trouble because I'm out of contact. I WAS IN THE SHOWER FOR GOD'S SAKE... No no, not more complex, less complex. I don't need five thousand apps for every little thing on earth. I don't need more technology, I need simple technology. I need people to be more responsible with what they invent and how it can be used. The world wide web was a great idea until about 4 million people turned into hackers in less than a year. The Anarchists cook book was distributed in an instant to anyone who wanted a copy and teenagers learned quickly how to make dangerous incendiary devices in the garage. No clue nor care for how dangerous the things they were playing with were. Kind of like the folks advancing technology today. I'm not talking about dooms day folks, I'm talking about being just as responsible as we are smart. I'm talking about considering second and third order effects before allowing the most dangerous things out into public hands. This is just, my opinion after all. I mean no offence to anyone, and if I have offended you I sincerely apologize.