Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The Good, The Bad, The Virtual: Part 3
This is the last of my virtual world spout offs. It’s just that I hope I’m not the only onewho sees this and it does scare me. The point I’m trying to make in this series of articles is: Yes, the Internet and computers have changed our civilization and our history. Yes, they have brought us to new levels of communication and productivity.BUT ... look at the price we have paid.We have come to rely on this new technology so much that we have actually passed control to this non-living thing. So much that it has reached the point that it has not only supplemented but replaced.
This really hit me back in August. I went to make a deposit but the ATM was down so I went inside. The friendly teller informed me that the computers were down and she could not take my transaction. I didn't think anything of it and asked her to take my deposit and give me a written receipt. She just looked at me with bewildered eyes and told me they no longer do that, no computer no transaction. She was too young to remember a world before ATM machines.
The Internet has become this giant non-living entity of it's own! A hugh global network of computers around the world. We go to it for information, to shop, for advice, to learn, to travel, to keep records and to weigh facts and make decisions.
We have handed off so much control that if it should stop, or worse, become with-held life as we know it would stop. We would simply be dead in the water, we couldn't even pump gas. This is not some future scenario. This is here and now, life has indeed become an X File episode.
The worst (and to me scary) part is we have given in so willingly, no hesitation, no thought about the future. We handed control of our lives to a giant non-living cloud, a mass of wires chips and plastic boxes and we did it willingly. Think about that.
Chris Kaminski is head technician for Computer Guys Live Inc., an online computer repair company based in Asheville, NC. Visit the Computer Guys Live for your secure, online computer repair and tech support.
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