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April 05, 2009
On progress
I'm feeling a little ashamed of myself after watching Louis C.K. [below] on the ingratitude of the tech-aware generations. Perhaps I shouldn't complain so much about Telstra and Microsoft and Apple and all the other people I complain about because ... well ... 50 years ago, when I was still growing up, I had to cope with bakelite phones and party lines and typewriters and phonograph records and by comparison, I'm living in some magic kingdom where one never has to lick a stamp, change a needle on a turntable, dirty one's hands prising jammed typewriter keys apart and changing ribbons, and aeroplanes mostly don't crash. Clearly, according to Louis, we've all lost perspective.
Well Louis is a scream, but is he right? I remember my father cursing the family car because he had to crank it. If you weren't careful, you could get a nasty whack from the crank handle. The reason we now have starter motors and ignition keys is that people got, well, terribly cranky about the inconvenience of having to get out of the car, haul out the crank handle, turn it until the compression built up, then give it a huge twist, and sometimes get whacked in the process.
If they'd told themselves how lucky they were not to have horses and carriages, we probably would still have horses and carriages which, I have to admit, might have been a good thing. The Wilkins ice shelf probably wouldn't be collapsing if we still had horses and carts.
But progress surely is the result of dis-satisfaction. And if we're ever going to direct progress into technologies that don't destroy the planet, contentment won't do it. And, dammit, I've probably gone over my ADSL allowance watching every Louis CK piece I can find on You Tube. I'm going to complain.
Posted by cw at April 5, 2009 01:27 PM
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