Is technology making us more sophisticated, or turning us into slaves?
I was momentarily seduced by Satnav the other day. My elder daughter lent me her plugin version (concerned as she is that her Dad might be losing it) and I have to say it did make finding places a lot easier. But afterwards, I handed it back to her.
There were various reasons for me doing so, none of which involved technophobia. My main motive in eschewing the Satnav route was simple: I do not think it is healthy for intelligent human beings to become more dependent still on gadgets. Also I couldn’t find the volume control.
I do realise that some people find my resistance quaint, but that’s OK: I have absolutely no objection to their desire to be stupid, and asleep to the dangers. But I would quite like to enumerate what those dangers are.
It all started forty years ago with calculators that ended the human ability to do mental arithmetic. Then cameras that made any clown a David Bailey. Then Macs that made any chimp an art director and typographer. Then phones that made people unable to wait quietly for somebody to arrive. Then txtng that made evry1 illiterate LOL IMHO. Then multi-channel television that made everyone’s senses immune to discernment. Then Google that turned every twit into a know-all. Then virtual reality that gave every nerd a life. Then mobile internet that ruined every blog’s appearance.
We are very close now to a situation where the machines are only easy to use if you know the answers. Before long, not only will nobody will have any initiative any more, they won’t know how to work the technology that takes its place.
I freely admit to being behind the curve on apps. I don’t need them, and my mobile already has 41,806 features I don’t use anyway – plus another 537,996 I don’t know about. In turn, I can’t be doing with loading my site via a tablet or a mobile: I’m a writer and analyst, not a newsfeed. But the point is: do we want a future in which kids can’t orienteer, and their grandparents can’t access the news or shop?
Whatever your view on that, here’s three new gadgets off the drawing board and on their way to you. I promise, none of them are spoofs:
The mind boggles. Or rather, mine would. However, I have been saying for three years now that, in portable personal jobbies, size is important – and genuinely functional multivariate use must be the future: so I must have something right – this from discovery.com
‘In the world of gadgets, shoppers will see a slew of “two-in-one” convertibles that act as both traditional laptops and more portable tablets, at least for Windows and Intel-based devices. “I believe two-in-ones are the future of laptops,” Bajarin anticipates. “We will see a huge campaign around these in 2014, including devices with dual operating systems, i.e. Android Apps running on Windows machines.”
Another New Year’s expectation: Bigger screens. That means already hard-to-fit-in-your-pocket smartphones will grow. And so will tablets, to facilitate screen sharing.’
Now this I like, because it makes sense. But hold hard there, because they’re going to f**k it up by doing this….
‘Another New Year’s expectation: Bigger screens. That means already hard-to-fit-in-your-pocket smartphones will grow. And so will tablets, to facilitate screen sharing….While they get bigger, your phones and tablets will also become more aware. For instance, beacon technology will soon be introduced in Major League Baseball parks and the new San Francisco 49ers stadium.
“Using something called Bluetooth low energy, these beacons can be attached to display end caps [at the end of store aisles], and when your phone or tablet comes within proximity, the beacon will alert you to sales and promotions or send things like player’s info and stats,” Bajarin explains.’
Who needs eyes or wits, right? We are going to be evolved by gadgets. So my suggestion is this: put every techie-nerd designer into an isolated Arizona desert for the next 250 years. Thus isolated and able only to use their own inventions, they will mutate rapidly into beings with no eyes, ears, legs, arms or noses. They will become perfect spheres without senses or brain-awareness. Perfect, in fact, for use in bowling alleys.
The Slog 