My husband is a techie aficionado. He religiously fellows a number of experts online who constantly expand his knowledge of electric cars. computers, smart phones, watches and smart homes. He knows what’s in, what’s out and what is coming down the pike. He has our home and our truck humming with devices that automatically insure that we will have lighting, music, maps or whatever we may need right at our fingertips. He’s one of those guys who would have been trading in his horse and buggy for a new fangled machine called a car in times of old.
I still laugh at the memory of him brining home a computer known as the TRS80 from Radio Shack back in the late nineteen seventies. It was the first home computer I had ever seen and I was a bit peeved that he had spent so much money on a device that seemed to be little more than a curiosity. Nonetheless I was loathe to nag and burst his bubble as he proudly set up the components and boasted that the strange looking contraption was going to change our lives. I was dubious about its worth but humored him with silence and a weak smile.
He spent hours unlocking the power of that machine, which at the time was not particularly impressive to me. I mostly fretted over the expense of what I then considered to be little more than a toy, but with a tape deck drive and a great deal of patience he was discovering how to prompt it to do more and more until finally reaching the conclusion that he needed an upgrade which ended up being a shiny new Apple computer with a floppy disk drive. That machine cost even more than the “trash 80” that we had begun to lovingly call the first computer, but it was capable of far more functions.
I soon learned that the Apple computer was quite useful in my educational work. I was able to create beautiful informational documents for my students and before long I was creating a monthly newsletter. Our daughter took a summer class offered by the school district and learned how to do a bit of programming as well. Suddenly I was willing to admit that computers were not really so bad at all. When Mike created an electronic grade book for me that automatically computed student averages I was sold on the importance of the machines that would indeed transform us.
Along the way cell phones entered the picture and once again Mike was out front in purchasing one for each of us. We never had the originals that looked like bricks but we were using our second state model fairly early in the evolution of that technology. I particularly enjoyed the comfort of knowing that if I had an emergency while driving that phone would quickly get me help. I thought of a time when my mother’s car broke down while she and I were exploring the backroads. We had to walk several miles before finding a phone to contact my husband to come to our rescue. Armed with my new contraption I realized that I would never again be forced to walk for hours in order to be saved. It was an incredibly comforting feeling.
Of course we all know about the explosion of ingenuity that burst forth from those early days. The laptop that I use to write my blogs is more powerful than the bank of computers used to put the first man on the moon. The new iPhone that I recently purchased not only allows me to instantly call people all over the world, but it provides me with directions when I drive, access to news, music, texts from friends and family and even a means to teach my math lessons from afar. I can snap photos anywhere I go, keep shopping lists at my fingertips, store recipes and order virtually anything I may need from groceries to auto parts. It still amazes me how far we have come. I have yet to take the amazing technology for granted and I know as well as anyone how much it has changed my life.
Now the appliances that whir around me would make George Jetson proud. I smile at the sound of my robotic vacuum cleaner tidying up my floors each day. I have access to hundreds of programs on the television that never flips and stutters like the old black and white screens that seemed so wondrous but imperfect in my youth. I can request recipes for my cooking with the sound of my voice. I learn about the latest news wherever I am. I feel ever more connected to the world at large. It used to take days or weeks or months to learn about events happening across the globe. Now I get alerts on the watch I wear on my wrist. I am instantly informed of roadblocks or impending weather emergencies. I’ve spent a time or two in the closet under the stairs after getting a warning that a tornado was nearby. I can text members of my family to quickly determine if they are okay when the streets are flooding in my city or to let them know about a loved one who is ill.
Recently I read that all of these machines that have become so much a part of our lives require new forms of etiquette. Young people in particular are unlikely to answer a phone call without first screening it. Gone are the days of having to lift the receiver of a landline to determine who is on the other side. Today’s smart phones let the person on the other end decide if they want or need to pick up right away. New rules suggest that unless it is an emergency it is best to precede a phone call with a text to find out when it will be a good time to call. According to the article how well one follows the current trends depends greatly on age. Those of us who grew up in “the old days” are more likely to still call without warning while the young folk have no idea what it was like to have a phone that was like a black box unwilling to provide details about who was behind that ringing.
According to my husband, who is still a technology guru, we have not even come close to the changes in technology that await us. His focus these days is on ways that we will make our human needs more in harmony with the natural world. He studies alternative forms of energy and the evolution of electric cars. He believes that we are nearing a tipping point in a revolution that will dramatically change the way we live from day to day. He expects to be one of the pioneers in that process but knows that he may not live to see the glorious changes that will one day come. He has great faith in the wheels of ingenuity and the brilliance of humans who are constantly pushing the envelope of innovation. I have embraced his optimism because I have seen the fruits of inventiveness first hand. The future is happening now and hopefully we will know how to embrace and use it for the benefit of all of mankind.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 