Does more advanced technology make your life better than the generation who died before they could enjoy it? Do you think you have it better than your grandfather or mother? “My grandfather may have owned a nice house on 2 acres of land, but I get to play Halo on my Xbox XII with my seven roommates.”
What is more important and what really does make a life better and more enjoyed? Don’t get me wrong, technological advancements can make your life superior. What we tend to think of as simple things like running water, electricity, trash pick up, and heating/cooling, aren’t so simple at all. Go back five hundred years and the richest king in Europe would still have none of these (maybe trash pick up). Go back a hundred years and maybe they existed but I bet your great grandparents didn’t have them.
When you think about it, we could have stopped there. Health and happiness would be possible and this would give us the free time to expand our minds and work on projects other than hauling water up a hill for seven hours. But like humans are apt to do, little advances kept happening. Common things like washing machines, garbage disposals, and microwaves went from being coveted to expected. Records became CDs which became Ipods and transferred to streaming. Phones went from something you needed an operator’s help with to a computer in your pocket.
As technology improved it took up more of our lives. Where once someone was saving an hour of labor by using a washing machine soon those hours or more would be spent staring at the original rectangle, television. I’d be willing to bet my next five tax returns that for the average number of folks in the country, technology takes up more time than it saves.
If I were to ask you what your baseline technology needs are? What would you say?
As mentioned before, water, electricity, trash pick up, and heating and cooling would probably make it on there. That would be my to go to, I have lived with less, often for years. But I’m asking you.
Are the following unneeded luxuries or part of your baseline needs:
- Television with DVDs Only
- Washing Machine
- Microwave
- Land Line
- Garbage Disposal
- Stereo
- Streaming Networks
- Horticultural Drip Systems
- Exercise Equipment
- Alea
- Computer
- Laptop
- Cell Phone
- Blue Tooth
- Video Game Consoles
- Adjustable Lighting
- Online Shopping
- Room to Room music controls
- Digital Controls for all electronic devices
This is so high tech it doesn’t Work
I would like to discuss something else before we close. Let’s start with a personal event I’m still dealing with as these words group together. In the new place we moved into apparently a previous owner decided he should put in a drip system all over every part of the back yard. Sure, he could carry buckets to his plants or water them with a hose, but that might conserve water, he could enjoy the very plants he’s watering, or the work could help him burn off a few pounds and we wouldn’t want that.
So now, this advanced technology has of course broken down to the point we have to shut off the water to the whole house or have a water bill which would cost more than a Whole Foods shopping spree. So the technology is so advanced nothing works.
It used to be a replacing a car stereo was a simple endeavor. Hell, I even did it alone once. My CD player died recently and I was informed, due to the dashboard computer system in my car I have never personally given any attention to or used, it would cost 2,000$ to replace. Again, wow this technology is so good it will never work again, nice job. (My solution was the buy a 50$ boombox and just play the CDs on that.)
When I was a kid, my turntable broke and I fixed it with a rubber band I used for my braces. Try doing that with an Alexa. My wife got a new job and wasn’t able to access her paychecks for months because they only put the money into some weird bank system which she tried to set up a few times and it failed. Wow it was so high tech she could work a job for 60 hours a week and not get paid for months, that’s some really impressive technology. So advanced no one can use it. Smart.
I bet if I asked you might have a few stories you could add to this list.
What would happen, if a hacker shut off the grid or the web goes down. I guess we won’t have phones, television, or music or at least most people won’t. Personally, I still have 500 DVDs, so if the grid ever goes down, I’m going to open up a solar energy movie house, so if you guys want to see some classic horror movies you had better start saving your canned goods now because it will be one can per showing. Just like in A Boy and His Dog. Hey, do I have that movie? I’d better get it before the grid goes down or none of us will ever see it again.
But don’t worry you’ll be able to find me by the sound of my blasting cassette tapes.
Alex Bone
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If you like cyberpunk dystopia tales, please take a second to look over my Skinjumper novel.
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WildernessPunk 