Gonch posted a link to this column about how unimpressed at 13-year-old was with a Sony Walkman from 30 years ago. The kid's reaction is a lot like putting him on a horse with him not realizing that airplanes are a relatively recent invention.
But while Gonch thinks it makes him old, I would argue that everyone has come to take technology for granted. I mean, we were talking recently in one of the podcasts about how crazy it is that we talk to each other for free hundreds of miles apart (as if we're in the next room), and then distribute a show all over the world. I could not have imagined that 15 years ago.
Or let's go one better. Yesterday I bought a device that's smaller than a deck of cards, lets me call people, has nearly 5,000 songs on it (compared to 10 or so on a cassette), can find my location on a map, plays video games, sends messages, retrieves documents from all over the Internet and does things people haven't even thought of yet. I never saw it coming.
But the truth is that most of us, at any age, aren't even surprised by this anymore. Honestly, that makes me fearful. I mean, what if we start to lose our ability to use our imaginations? I think that would be very sad. How do we come up with the next somethingorother to do stuff we've not considered?
The dependence upon technology was never brought home so succinctly as it was during the Blackout a few years ago. Anything that depended upon electricity was unusable for 2-3 days in our area. It gave many people a taste of what we take for granted.
But I don't think we'll ever completely lose the ability to use our imaginations. As technology advances, so do the possibilities. I think people just use their imaginations in a different way.
What a shame should we lose our ability to imagine .... or is that already happening? The very technology that helps us and entertains us in so many ways dulls our brains by doing the creative thinking for us, while we simply react.
What scares me even more is the question of how so many who no longer have even the basic skills to survive in a world without the technological aids would fare should the developed world again step back as it has several times over the last few millennia.