Humanity Must Prevail

 

Blessed Technology

“Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.”

R. Buckminster Fuller

          Twice this week, my 26-year-old neighbor has called me from out of town to go see if his garage door was closed. He’d gotten a message from his security system that the door was open. Twice, I have walked down the street to find his garage door and his front door locked down tight. Yesterday he said to me, “I guess I need new technology, huh?” I told him, being the old bat that I am, “No, what you need is old technology—just pull the garage door down when you leave.”

          Author, Douglas Adams speaks truth in my worldview: “Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet…We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.” Amen. We’ve had two impressive electrical storms here this week—lightening dropped down from on high, one strike after another. I have a wireless printer that, even though it was plugged into a surge protector, now cannot contact the laptop. It cost me an entire morning of trying fix after fix and attempting to follow incomprehensible instructions from a “chat-on-line expert” to no avail. I’m sure the entire neighborhood heard the demonic cursing that came out of my mouth—like something from The Exorcist. That is my usual response to most computerized things that don’t work.

          Albert Einstein said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” In my case, technology can reduce my humanity to the level of a raging maniac in three minutes flat. I know I’m not alone in this. It’s great when it works, and incapacitating when it doesn’t…and most of the time, it doesn’t.

          Three weeks in a row, I went to the United States Post Office nearest me to acquire a mailbox. All three times, they couldn’t process anything because their computers were down. How efficient is that? Who remembers when you went into a Post Office and paid for whatever you needed with cash, or a check, and they rang it up on a cash register? That was deemed too slow and archaic…so now we have computerized technology that only works half the time.

          Albert Einstein also said, “The human spirit must prevail over technology.” He realized just how dangerous it would be for us to become completely dependent on technology to run our lives—especially when it can be hacked and controlled remotely. In an era when Americans younger than fifty cannot tell time on a non-digital clock, we are in real trouble if someone who doesn’t like us, and they are legion, hits our power grid. It doesn’t even require an enemy—I heard just yesterday on NPR that because of the excessive heat wave coming this week, we can expect rolling power outages. So, please, unplug your computerized technology.

          I know that technology is just a word for equipment meant to make life easier—from the dial telephone to electric vehicles, we have made steady gains in ever more sophisticated machines. But let us not forget that sometimes the simplest tool is the best one. Don’t give away your whisks, or your manual can openers and screw drivers. And dig out those paper funeral-home church fans. It’s gonna get hot up in here!

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane