On 6/11/2024 5:41 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I think we've got way past "computers". We've got into "devices".
Smart phones. I phone for a taxi, and get a text saying "taxi dispatched
to ..."; then as it arrives I get a call ringing.
Or I catch a bus; but before going to the bus stop I've checked in with
an app to see if one is on the way. At the bus stop I can also see where they're at on the route.
Tablets. I have lots of ebooks. Preferable because you can enlarge the
pages, check words, translate, give me previous mentions of a certain
name, save the page without a card. In addition to email and normal
browsing.
A plethora of devices. Webcams, doorcams, watches, etc.
The word "computer" has become as generic as "nail". Some teenager might
well ask me "Do you mean laptop?"
I wonder who invented the wheel? Some unrecorded genius in our
pre-history. But quite soon it must have become mundane under "cart" and "carriage". People stopped gazing in wonder at the wheels and shifted
their attention to the devices wheeled.
I guess it depends on perspective. Computers are at
the heart of modern technology, even when they shouldn't
be. (Our new clothes washer wants to "communicate" instead
of just giving me sensible dials to choose load size, temp, etc.)
But even the most sophisticated computer is still just a fancy
abacus. AI is just a complicated algorythm that simulates
intelligence.
I have a Texas Instruments solar calculator that cost me $10
in 1985, at a drugstore. It still works perfectly. It's a computer.
An abacus is a computer. It's all abstractions of numeric
calculations. The enlarging pixels in your ebook are a math
calculation, adjusting how many pixels (which are also abstracted
numbers, usually representing RGB values,) should make up "A".
There's nothing in computing that's more complicated than 1s
and 0s. It all abstracts from there. Just as a lighted road sign can
wish you "Happy Holidays", but the words are made up of only
a number of small lightbulbs.
Despite the sophistication of tech, none of it essentially changes
human life. The myth of modernity is that our lives will *essentially*
change with the next amazing invention. We invent medicines, easy
chairs and vibrating dildoes, but those are all used with basic human
motives. *There's nothing new under the sun.* That always holds
true. Technology's glitter helps us to forget that, but at our peril.
To my mind, the notable changes have been mixed blessings,
as they usually are. We beat death, but that also helps us to
deny death, and we now think that preserved specimens like
Madonna or Dolly Parton are "taking care of themselves". We imagine
that tech can save us from existential panic. Ray Kurzweil, the
father of OCR at MIT, is taking handfuls of anti-oxidants in hopes
of surviving until such time as he's able to download his "self"
to a computer chip. Yet he's apparently never considered his
own assumptions about what his "self" is and whether such a
doubtful entity should or could be stored in binary data.
You can call an Uber, yet Uber has been instrumental in destroying
unions, work relationships, and even employer/employee
relationships.
Some like to see that as the liberation of the
worker. But where's the liberation in barely paying rent with
60 hours work per week? Where's the humanity in a taxi service
that changes prices dramatically based on how many people
need a ride? Is it an improvement that you can read an ebook
but can't actually own your copy? Is it an improvement that
you can order Pad Thai delivered to your door, but the restaurant
can't afford to survive because they're busy paying delivery fees
to DoorDash, and can't afford not to subscribe to DoorDash?
A darker, more basic development, is the gradual corporatizing
and "appification" of modern computing. The Internet was billed
as a front door to the world, available to all. What we increasingly
have restrictions. Spyware service apps running on kiosk devices,
operated by corporations, and increasingly required for anything
from driving directions to theater tickets. There are now middleman
companies that handle something as simple as paying for a drink in
a convenience store. Young people are even beginning to regard
raw reality -- things like cash and other people -- as "unsafe".
They prefer the comfort of apps.
Yesterday I went to the dentist. Last week I had received an
email asking me to confirm the appt. Not from my dentist. From
Nexhealth.com. My dentist (who's fairly young) can't manage his
computing needs, like scheduling. He pays Nexhealth to handle it.
I clicked the Nexhealth link and arrived at a blank webpage. NoScript
told me that at least 8 unrelated companies were trying to run
script in my browser! Nexhealth only needed to process the unique
ID in the URL parameter. But they had called in all their sleazy
friends for a datamining party. Is that transcendent technology?
I emailed the dentist's office and told them
the webpage doesn't work but that I intended to keep the appt.
When I got home there was another email from Nexhealth: "Please
rate your dentist visit."
Computers are merely tools. What we do with them is what
matters. If we have a stick we can make a spear, fashion a dildo,
use it as a fork, or make a fire. It's still just a stick.
If we look to computers merely for convenience and
futuristic titillation then it's no different from a baby transfixed
by a mobile. In the end, we all die, even though our bodies may
be packed with artifical organs, and butt or cheekbone implants,
by the time we go. There's a Tibetan saying that you never know
which will come first: The next day or the next life. Even if someone
has an iPhone 27 that lives their life for them, at death's door,
they can't take it with them.
That reminds me of a great Gahan Wilson cartoon. Two women,
dressed in black, are sitting on the front porch of a modest house.
The screen door is open. Through it are rushing objects that
are flying up into the sky. A dog, a piano, etc. The caption:
"Oh, Harold's taking it with him."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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