Freedom and technology
Thursday, January 28, 2010 I'm in meetings most of the day so I'll leave you to talk about the new Apple iPad (I know you want to). Or, more generally, the role of technology in modern life. Does it help or does it hinder? Does it improve or does it reduce our quality of life? Or does it make no significant difference?
It's a common assumption (which I share) that the car changed and improved people's lives because it gave us the freedom to go more or less where we wanted with far less effort. Likewise, inventions such as the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine were seen as huge steps forward from the drudgery of household work.
More recently the personal computer has freed us from the typewriter and, via the Internet, has opened up a whole new world. Some would argue that communication technology was responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, in which case millions - possibly billions - of people have reason to be grateful.
The iPad is simply the latest in a long line of innovative products. But has technology genuinely improved our lives? Or have we become slaves to things like computers, televisions and mobile phones?
Readers might like to suggest one product from the last 50 years that has given us greater freedom, and one that has "enslaved" us.
As Frasier Crane would say, "I'm listening".
Reader Comments (9)
The Rabbit springs to mind - I finally got the spare key back from my ex when I presented her with one last Christmas..
The mobile phone, for all its misuse, has certainly given us all greater freedom but it, like many others, is dwarfed by the one that enslaves us. The bloody wheelie bin.
If MPs have indeed voluntarily adhered to the ban, perhaps they should consider renaming the "Members' Smoking Room" to something slightly less misleading!
Incidentally: we all know there's an exemption from the ban for Royal Palaces - but does anyone know why? Is it due to some pre-existing legislation that meant the smoking ban couldn't be applied there, or was it in the wording of the ban itself?
I heard an interesting rumour the other day to the effect that Apple are using customer's smoking habits to void their product guarantees.
Anyone know if this is actually true? If so, would this execrable practice hold water under UK law?
Mac, the Apple rumour would appear to be true, sadly - there are pages and pages about it if you Google it, and no-one seems to have suggested that it's just an urban myth.
Cars allowed people to move around more quickly than buses and trains, which were in turn faster than horses and carriages, which were in turn faster than walking on foot. Vacuum cleaners and washing machines in turn speeded up home cleaning.
Computers allowed large numbers of calculations to be performed more rapidly than using mechanical calculators, which were in turn faster than using slide rules, which were in turn faster than hand calculation.
Mobile phones also speed communications and are generally quicker to use than land lines, which were in turn quicker than mail. The internet is a combination of computers and communications technology that speeds mail (as email) and allows rapid access to information.
They all save work of one sort or other.
But it's not all entirely positive. A car driver has to concentrate on driving, while a bus or train passenger can do something else (like read a book). Machine-washed clothes (in my experience) are never quite as clean as hand-washed ones. Vacuum cleaners can't reach all sorts of places. Mental arithmetic is quicker for simple calculations than using a computer or calculator (are children taught to memorise their times tables these days?).
Mobile phones may be quicker to use to phone people, but they also allow other people to contact them more quickly yoo, so that there's less seclusion. Some people are expected to have them with them at all times. This seems like a kind of slavery.
I think that the product in the last 50 years which has provided us with more freedom has to be the Internet, if one can call the Internet a product. I think that one can because the word Internet really means the programs and equipment which enable the www to work.
As Idlex suggested, mobile phones work both ways. I would hate to be an employee who is at the beck and call of his employer 24/7, and I feel sure that there must be lots and lots of them. That would be my choice of enslaver, although I would not like to without mine! But then I am retired and can always switch it off.
I think technology has turned out to be a curse and has gone too far too quickly for the average brain to absorbe as well as enslaving us all.
Granted it has been a boon for a lot of things mentioned here.
But it has been allowed to get totally out of control.
Apart from intrusive CCTV cameras, in your face media, mobile phones, ipods and computers that are made to last for a couple of years, forcing you to upgrade to stay on board.
Not to mention new designs for cookers, fridges, plumbing and electrical parts, thought up by fancy techno graduates in state of the art laboratories, who know it all in theory but nothing in practice and who design unworkable parts most of the time, for machines that are out of date after 2 or 3 years, making it cost a fortune for householders to get the simplist item fixed, because parts are obsolete or its cheaper to buy new.
The same goes for cars.
There are so many different makes of cars on the market that its practically impossible nowadays to buy a secondhand part for any car because they're all so high tech that even the smallest part like a wing mirror can cost anything from 200 to 400E,
This is because even mechanics cant keep up and its all done by computer for gods sake, so that the smallest part has to be bought as a whole unit costing a fortune.
I wont even mention the latest fuckup of the accelerations by Toyota where 3million alone had to be withdrawn in the U.S.
Dont get me going on food and the lack of fresh in the process.
Technology how are you, and thats only the tip of the iceberg, I could go on but I wont.
Methinks its time that 'the knowledge economy' and all the research gratuates took a chill
pill.
We'd all be better served if they were pointed in a different direction, like serving an apprenticeship in a trade.
And forget about high faluting degrees, there's just too damn many of you out there!
Just a quick thought - internet, mobiles etc wouldn't exist without the POTS. (Plain Old Telephone Service).
As for built in obsolecence, my POTS phones are mostly rotary, and date back as far as 1929 and with a bit of TLC and encouragement still work fine.
These things were built to last.
My mother's pride and joy of her first washing machine lasted for about 22 years, its all about keeping the consumer on the hook for the latest tech breakthrough.