I wonder about technology sometimes. With the exception of my dad, I have the least tech capability of anyone I know. If there's a way to mess up a computer, I'll find it- and I don't mean dropping it, spilling juice in it, or leaving it outside in the bushes. I haven't done any of those things. I mean a general sense of helplessness on my part and habitual freezing on the part of my computer. I can't even explain what's wrong, but I'll try to do something and it won't work. Specific, I know, but I can't even comprehend the lingo of computers, and I know the meaning of the word perspicuous.
That's a joke, by the way. The meaning of the word perspicuous is funny because nobody knows what perspicuous means.
So, back to my point. My computer is infested with ants, and I already said I didn't spill anything. That's not my point, but an ant just ran across my screen and I killed it.
This is my point, as I flick the dead ant off my fingers- every time we develop a new technology to make something better, something else gets worse. I learned recently that screws and levers are classified as simple machines. I wonder why it is that the newest technology is obsolete within days, but screws and levers are still used and identifiable?
My first novel is in fragments on several computer disks, but I don't have my old word processor, so I can't look at the pitiful work I did back then. I have a gazillion cassette tapes that I can't play. My senior recital is on reel to reel, but the screwdriver in the kitchen drawer still comes in handy.
When I was a kid, a new appliance could be counted on to work for the next twenty or thirty years, but now they last no more than ten, but they're more efficient. You can find anything in the world on the internet in three minutes and buy it from your most comfortable chair. If you're me, you'll wonder why it never came and realize weeks later that you must have left a field empty. Sigh and start over.
One day, will someone have to reinvent all those old rusty farm implements we ignore in small town museums? The cotton gin isn't a beverage, but does it matter any more? What machines will last? Will we become so tech savvy that we are helpless in the real world?
