Gene Wilder's character ("It's pronounced Frankensteen") recreated the famous "It's alive" line when he created his "Abby-normal" creature. And I hear some of the same language as Kelly tells us that technology is alive. In some ways, I agree that we have created a situation in which we are seeing a living 'Technium' which seems to evolve into newer and newer technologies, but I also wonder if this living technium, which we may or may not have started, is causing us to devolve. Are we less able to survive now? What happens to us if/when we lose electricity and fossil fuels? The blackout of the eastern third of the United States is but a simple example of the chaos which ensued when we lost our electronic communications and our electronic assistants.
I am not a Luddite -- I wish I could be, but I am too lazy -- and were they really against technolgy in the first place? I think that they were only against the elimination of a set of jobs that had been reserved for artisans?
I think about it in the simple terms of my garage door. The structure of my home and garage is, of course, a technological advancement to provide my family shelter and comfort. Furthermore, the rail, bearing and spring system which makes the opening system of my door is a technological advancement. The last bits are the electrically powered mechanical opener and the remote, located on my visor, which triggers the motor -- all those make my life so very easy, but I could survive without them. That much is true, but I don't think that I would want to. I have become comfortable and reliant. I think that my wish is that I could then have the skill and knowledge to repair that technology myself.
The same is true in the case of my gas heated clothes dryer -- which broke on Friday... and I had to learn to disassemble it to then repair it before reassembling it so that we could dry the clean clothes (so many technologies to think of here....) And this creature comfort which helps to keep my clothes soft and dry now has cost me 6-7 hours of time....and I curse that technology for breaking, but it saves me so much time when it is working.
So it's almost a situation of codependency maybe. I am dependent.
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