In The Face of Computer Technology

In the Face of Computer Technology [May 25th 2009] [Marcelo Moraes]

Computers are the greatest invention so far in human history, I am certain. We have only begun to realise what computer technology does: it maximizes most tools we have built, and will quite probably do this to all inventions that came before it. And that's without talking about the speed it gives to our logical and mathemathical capacities. Hardly do we ever go to a place that has not a computer chip present inside some object, or is outside an area that is covered by sattelite telecommunications of some sort, even if it is just a camera watching us from the orbit of the earth. Given the correct gadgets and connections, we can reach all kinds of information and people anywhere, anytime. The world can also track us down and get in touch, and that brings us to a dark side to it all.

A person that wants to get away from the world would find it quite difficult nowadays. We have become very dependant on computer technology in our daily effort to balance work and leisure. Yes, I am considering that doing your job and your social mingling from your home, using the web, is the new normal. I know it sounds scary, but everything that is too new does just that, at first. When the telephone was invented, and even more as the telephone lines started covering the planet, lots of people worried that no one would meet face to face, in the space of a generation or two. It seemed obvious that, having been born into a world that gave you the power to talk to others and hear their voices without being physically close to them, the new generations would stay home forever, only leaving it for work that demanded their presence in the flesh. That idea has been proved foolish, and so will the idea of a dystopia full of computer-addicted anti-social zombies. There will always be some activities and answers that will require one to be there on the spot in person. Sometimes things just have to be firsthand and face to face.