Technology, Privacy and Nothing About UFOs

A popular discussion for many years has been the acceleration of technology and our dependence on that technology at the cost of less human memory usage. This is not a new take on the idea that we are losing some of ourselves to an increasingly gadgetized world, but rather just my input, which tends to fall on deaf ears when discussed with most people.

We certainly love our devices. Our phones, our laptops, our Global Positioning Systems, and the myriad softwares available for each. Our phones process faster than all of NASA’s computers during the age of the Space Race, our laptops packed with more punch and much less size than a 386 IBM circa 1996. We carry with us music studios, vast music libraries, and thousands upon thousands of photos & documents. The total collection of each of our lives, comfortably fitting on a handful of gigabytes with room to spare. These are, of course, amazing and impressive things, but what price have we paid beyond dollars?

How many of you could tell me 5 of your friends phone numbers without referring to you cell phone’s contact library?

I can barely remember my own, let alone the number of anyone else. I’d be proper fucked if I had to make an emergency phone call, sans cell phone. Yeah, I could try 411 if anyone I knew was listed.

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