What modern invention/innovation do you wish had *never* been developed?

[LizzieMaine]

True. But if the power goes out, do you really need the stuff on the web to survive?

Well, there were places near here that lost power for a week due to the ice storm just before Christmas, and I'm sure there were some near-fatal cases of Facebook withdrawal.

In all seriousness, though, what worries me is the vulnerability of material that's being stored only in digital formats. I was doing some genealogical research recently and wanted to get a look at some documents concerning one of my great-grandfathers, only to find out that the particular file I needed is not available because it was stored on a digital format that can no longer be read, and the original documents were destroyed.

This kind of mentality -- we've got diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigital, so who needs to keep all this awful paaaaaaaperrrrr -- is going to be the death of civilization if we're not careful. And I have no doubt that we won't be careful.

 

[Yeps]

Lately I've been wishing there was a little less communication tech. I moved to a new city a while back, and kind of wish I could be a little less connected. I would like to be a little out of contact, and striking it on my own a bit more. However, I actually like my family and friends from home, and I don't want to freak them out by dropping purposefully off the radar. I might try to move to another country at some point.

 

[jamespowers]

Well, there were places near here that lost power for a week due to the ice storm just before Christmas, and I'm sure there were some near-fatal cases of Facebook withdrawal.

In all seriousness, though, what worries me is the vulnerability of material that's being stored only in digital formats. I was doing some genealogical research recently and wanted to get a look at some documents concerning one of my great-grandfathers, only to find out that the particular file I needed is not available because it was stored on a digital format that can no longer be read, and the original documents were destroyed.

This kind of mentality -- we've got diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigital, so who needs to keep all this awful paaaaaaaperrrrr -- is going to be the death of civilization if we're not careful. And I have no doubt that we won't be careful.

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience. In a second stage men are docile to events, plastic to new habits and suggestions, yet able to graft them on original instincts, which they thus bring to fuller satisfaction. This is the plane of manhood and true progress. Last comes a stage when retentiveness is exhausted and all that happens is at once forgotten; a vain, because unpractical, repetition of the past takes the place of plasticity and fertile readaptation. In a moving world readaptation is the price of longevity. The hard shell, far from protecting the vital principle, condemns it to die down slowly and be gradually chilled; immortality in such a case must have been secured earlier, by giving birth to a generation plastic to the contemporary world and able to retain its lessons. Thus old age is as forgetful as youth, and more incorrigible; it displays the same inattentiveness to conditions; its memory becomes self−repeating and degenerates into an instinctive reaction, like a bird's chirp."
Santayana puts that in perspective living well before the digital era. I often wonder if what is happening there is indeed on purpose. If you can contort and control the past you can get people to do crazy things because it was always done that way----riiiiigghhhttt. Revisionist history is all around us and with supporting documents disappearing, history is rewritten. History is largely memory and without that you can rewrite the past. :doh

 

[jamespowers]

Lately I've been wishing there was a little less communication tech. I moved to a new city a while back, and kind of wish I could be a little less connected. I would like to be a little out of contact, and striking it on my own a bit more. However, I actually like my family and friends from home, and I don't want to freak them out by dropping purposefully off the radar. I might try to move to another country at some point.

Just tell them that you will be busy and not be able to remain in constant contact for a while then gradually beg off being in contact for longer periods. It has worked for friends of mine.

 

[Yeps]

Just tell them that you will be busy and not be able to remain in constant contact for a while then gradually beg off being in contact for longer periods. It has worked for friends of mine.

Most of my friends don't bat much of an eye at me disappearing from contact for periods of time. That has been happening since college. It's mostly the family that would wonder what was up. But yeah, I guess I could wean them off. I might try getting off of Facebook for the most part.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

This kind of mentality -- we've got diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigital, so who needs to keep all this awful paaaaaaaperrrrr -- is going to be the death of civilization if we're not careful. And I have no doubt that we won't be careful.

And finally my personal favourite:

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The one thing that I have found out about social media is just how little I have in common with people that I know in real life. I have more in common with Facebook friends that I have never met in Wisconsin & England that I do with my own family.

Something I don't like about social media if the feeling of being left out. I found out that my someone that I considered my best friend had gotten married & I found out about it via Facebook.

 

[jamespowers]

The one thing that I have found out about social media is just how little I have in common with people that I know in real life. I have more in common with Facebook friends that I have never met in Wisconsin & England that I do with my own family.

Something I don't like about social media if the feeling of being left out. I found out that my someone that I considered my best friend had gotten married & I found out about it via Facebook.

Well gee, time to re-evaluate those relationships eh?

 

[Zombie_61]

The one thing that I have found out about social media is just how little I have in common with people that I know in real life.

It can be interesting, in numerous ways, to read some of the things people are willing to share about themselves on social media sites like Farcebook. :shocked: :twitch: :doh:

 

[Gregg Axley]

Or the things they send Victor Brunswick in a PM.

While I find it neat to have things in common with HS people I never talked to, I don't care to know the intimate details of their life.
However, some of the things they share, bring back fond memories of a great time gone by with stories or pictures.
But 90% of the content? It's not really interesting.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Well gee, time to re-evaluate those relationships eh?

I have more in common with you than I do with my own Father, Mother & sisters.

 

[sheeplady]

In all seriousness, though, what worries me is the vulnerability of material that's being stored only in digital formats. I was doing some genealogical research recently and wanted to get a look at some documents concerning one of my great-grandfathers, only to find out that the particular file I needed is not available because it was stored on a digital format that can no longer be read, and the original documents were destroyed.

That has been a very common problem in digitalization. The issue is that it is far far more cheap to destroy the original copy than to keep it when scanning. It is mostly a funding issue more than anything else. If libraries and the grants had more funding, they could both store the original, scan it in a way that doesn't destroy it, and update the files periodically. But unfortunately that is not a priority in our society.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I have more in common with you than I do with my own Father, Mother & sisters.

Oh Bruce, anyone but James...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

In all seriousness, though, what worries me is the vulnerability of material that's being stored only in digital formats. I was doing some genealogical research recently and wanted to get a look at some documents concerning one of my great-grandfathers, only to find out that the particular file I needed is not available because it was stored on a digital format that can no longer be read, and the original documents were destroyed.

This kind of mentality -- we've got diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigital, so who needs to keep all this awful paaaaaaaperrrrr -- is going to be the death of civilization if we're not careful. And I have no doubt that we won't be careful.

The ease with which digital media can be "updated" disturbingly makes me think of the beginning of Orwell's 1984 where the main character Winston Smith is employed in the history section of Big Brother's "Ministry of Truth" and his job was to alter or destroy historic documents to make it fit the current party line.

He who controls the past controls the future.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Or the things they send Victor Brunswick in a PM.

While I find it neat to have things in common with HS people I never talked to, I don't care to know the intimate details of their life.
However, some of the things they share, bring back fond memories of a great time gone by with stories or pictures.
But 90% of the content? It's not really interesting.

Yes, I am the Keeper of the Secrets.
PM me for prices

 

[jamespowers]

I have more in common with you than I do with my own Father, Mother & sisters.

Makes sense to me.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh Bruce, anyone but James...

Yes, he has nothing in common with hippies so stand back.

 

[jamespowers]

The ease with which digital media can be "updated" disturbingly makes me think of the beginning of Orwell's 1984 where the main character Winston Smith is employed in the history section of Big Brother's "Ministry of Truth" and his job was to alter or destroy historic documents to make it fit the current party line.

He who controls the past controls the future.

Exactly my point before.

 

[jamespowers]

Yes, I am the Keeper of the Secrets.
PM me for prices

Like Lenin.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Yes, he has nothing in common with hippies so stand back.

I feel bad that he's so misguided.
And I'm not the one that lives near a large concentration of hippies.
We have hicks, they're different.
Hippies make purses and belts out of hemp, which is useless to 99% of the population.
Hicks make Moonshine, which everyone can use.

Not only can they change the past or delete it, but they can also make mistakes with a huge bureaucracy.
Such as in the movie Brazil.

VC Brunswick has many secrets in his secret vault. Also known as his inbox.