Captives of Technology

We all love the Internet. We all love technology , and sure do love all the toys and games and other voltage vampires that with which we can clutter up our lives. But our love of technology can also have its downside. It can make us fragile and dependent and ultimately fragile and brittle.

Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I had a meeting scheduled in my office with an attorney who needed to travel from midtown Manhattan to the downtown area. An hour before the meeting she called me and said her internet had crashed and wanted to know which subway to take. When she finally arrived, I said,"you know, not too long ago people would have known to just look at the subway map in the station." She was stunned as the thought never occurred to her. She was totally dependent on her electronic life and once it crashed so did some of her ability to interact with the world. We are not talking calculating orbital mechanics, just looking at a map, and in that, her mind collapsed on itself.

Think of it. We need GPS units where once road maps were sufficient. We need individual cell phones , and in some cases multiple cell phones, to stay in touch at all times. Blackberries that keep you tethered to work 24/7. And god help the "crackberry" addict who can't get a fix.

Our military has become increasingly dependent on technology do to the level of the individual infantryman and researchers are trying mightily to hook him into an ever increasingly web of electronic complexity. I find it interesting to note that the people we currently are fighting are for the most part living a less complicated, in fact almost pre-industrial existence in mountains, and they themselves realize that their weak point is their reliance on technology, such as the internet and easily intercepted electronic communications.

Written materials exist for millennia. People still read and interpret ancient Sanskrit on written on clay tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics on stone and parchment. Please tell me the shelf life of a book downloaded onto a Kindle? If your hard drive has ever crashed or your IPod battery died, you know the answer.

Technology makes us smarter but not wiser. We live in the milliseconds and ignore the moments. As we access a world of knowledge we lose contact with our neighbors and ourselves.

Quo Vadis?