I am writing today from the 33rd floor of a cyberzone building, in a room with white walls. I feel liberated but I also feel alone. Outside the glass windows, I can see the classic Manila traffic on a payday Friday. Everyone is on the road craving for home or friends after a week of hard work.
I just made my very first online purchase, buying a book for a friend miles away to send as a gift for her birthday. I don't know if this is considered a cliche now, but the power of technology is truly amazing. I know I've been a bit slow in adapting to it, having just recently activated my paypal account. I am still a bit traditional, and I like browsing through bookstores and looking around to find the perfect gift for someone. But I am now trying new things, like buying online stuff, which I know is very normal to most in the developed world. I find online transactions very convenient but sometimes its simplicity scares me. It can't be that easy, can it? It is indeed the role of technology to make things simpler, more convenient so we can do more things.
But more things of what, I wonder? I've seen two people in cafe's before, friends whose attention are fixed on their laptop screens, occasionally distracted by the beeps on their mobile phones. Ears covered in earplugs.Where has the conversation gone? Maybe at times, presence is enough. Just knowing there is someone there with you is comfortable while you explore the world wide web... a little bit funny though when there is an actual person just seating across, who you can talk to. In a way technology can be self-consuming, in other times mind-expanding, depending on the way one uses it, I guess.
Technology is only a tool. It can be used well or used badly. One good use of it that I have discovered recently is e-publishing. Technology has opened the doors for authors who had no access to opportunities before in the traditional publishing world. It has leveled the playing field and cast a deeper net to discovering new gems in the literary world.
I learned this week that Borders in the US has filed for bankruptcy while Barnes and Nobles is being sold, because purchase of paperbacks are declining drastically, assisted by the increased sales of tablets overtaking laptops and PCs, over 50 million pieces sold in the early part of 2011 alone. E-books are outselling printed ones in Amazon 3:1.
I feel sad at the impending demise of print though, I love my paperbacks! Do you think someday we will find books in museums instead of libraries? Although, bookworms will definitely find it hard to let go of the touch of paper, a friend says that the electronic versions can and will save so many trees. Caring for the environment is indeed an utmost priority.
It is in this way, that technology is best used. Sometimes though it is kind of scary how dependent we have become on technology. Children as young as 2 yrs old can already open an iPad and type on computers. They might be deprived of the joy and wonder of exploring the real, physical world, of discovering things with their own touch and vision... There should be some sense of balance somewhere.
What happens when things break down, where do we go? What about things done by hand; will we one day look at them as part of ancient history, to be admired as a heritage from a distant past but no longer part of life. What will the future look like? I know there will be no boundaries. I believe that it will be a borderless world. But I do hope that technology will foster understanding among countries, serve as a bridge, a common ground that brings people together like the social networking sites. I wish for technology that not just connects people but makes people work together to build a better world.
There goes the dreamer. I am tired now and ready to go home. Why didn't I just work remotely? haha. Ah, because I wanted to be with people. I believe technology is just a tool. For it to fulfill its purpose, people must do their part. At the end of the day, it's the people not the technology that counts.
Lesson today: People over things.
Listening to: "There are No Boundaries" by Kris Allen
2 comments:
You ask "what if things break down, where would we go?". You might be interested in people who try to recreate civilisation from scratch.
Like Thomas Thwaites who is trying to create a toaster from the raw materials - iron ore and oil.
http://www.thomasthwaites.com/thomas/toaster/page2.htm
Or the Immaculate Telegraphy group who:
"In the summer of 2009, Substitute Materials set out to test if electronic communication could have been built at any time in history, if someone only had the right information. Using no modern tools or materials and relying entirely on material found on the ground in the wilderness, a telegraph switch producing .7 volts of electricity was completed in November. Using the techniques learned during Immaculate Telegraphy, an entire telegraphic network could have been constructed in the stone age."
I guess this shows that although we build complex systems on top of complex systems, we still haven't lost touch with the basic elements that make it happen. I think it's more just that modern people prefer to learn a lot about few subjects than a little bit about everything. :-)
Cheers, Adam! Thanks for the links and info :) Agree with you. The building blocks for civilisation have always been there. All we need is a great idea, which for me is an element of the divine.
All the tools we have to make great ideas happen are already found in nature, and within us. Everything is there. Our task is to discover it.
I think I might add right timing as a valuable ingredient. right ideas + timing + using the right tools, will produce a better impact.
I guess, I was just thinking what would a lonely stone age man do with an entire telegraphic network if he had no use for it. There is also a time for everything...Preparedness of civilisation is also key. :-)
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