the future, soon
Well, it's that time again.
No, I'm not talking about exams, or Joey's specials related to the same (though I'd happily make a pact with the devil to avoid the former and forever secure the latter); I'm talking about the end of another year of school, and thus, the Argosy. Next year, my hallowed position will be filled by another, and I think you (I refer, of course, to my single-digit readership) can expect to see great things from her. This cycle of editorial renewal means, however, that this column's fine tradition is soon to be over.
I'd like to be able to go on some final rant about the nature of technology and the underlying message of all my various insightful columns -- but upon reflection, I'm not sure I really have enough insightful columns to get away with it. That said, I still have one more chance to wedge the crowbar of understanding into the punky wood of… what, the imagination? Hmm, poor metaphor.
Perhaps I need a more subversive turn of phrase, to better reflect my intent -- I mean to impress upon you the importance of technology. The true promise of tech is not to have a new way to waste time in class, or provide you with a galaxy of porn with a quick Google search, but rather to empower you. The thing that separates humanity from other animals is reasoning, and reasoning allows us to make tools. And then use those tools to make better tools, and so on, and so on, until you can find your exact geographical location with the touch of a button, then armed with only an address, get directions to your destination, without ever looking up from your cellphone. Without the context of modern smartphones, that almost sounds like magic.
Technology presents problems, yes. At some point, everyone has had their computer 'eat' a sensitive document, everyone drops their cellphone in the toilet eventually, and everyone, at some point in their lives, hates a printer enough to ritually destroy it. But just think of how many times your computer has worked perfectly, allowing you to create stunning multimedia presentations or immaculately crafted essays, how often your cell provides you with a near-constant voice or text connection to all your friends, and, well, printers really are pretty unlovable.
And now think of how your parents sweated over essays on typewriters, painstakingly transferring hand-written notes to a typewritten page. How well can you spell without autocorrect? There was a time before Scantron sheets, before PowerPoint, before Wikipedia.
Technology changes (and maybe even improves) our culture, as well. For every perfidy the Internet presents to you, be it something as harmless as a bad joke or as scarring as "Pudding Farts," there is a wellspring of creativity made possible by the medium's effortless anonymity and power to connect people. And what about music?
The trivially cheap reproduction of almost perfect fidelity music is a luxury I can't even imagine living without, but as recently as twenty years ago, our cohort swapped copied cassette tapes instead of emailing MP3s (or just streaming them from the Internet).
Technology can help people at a societal level, too. In Africa (a land populated by the recycled cellphones of the 90s), a new service has risen that securely transfers money via text message, ensuring that you can no longer effectively rob people on the street.
Technology keeps its promises. Sure, you don't have a flying car, but the boys in the back room of Moller International hope you'll someday fly -- and then drive -- the M400, their 'skycap.' Scant weeks ago, Geek Chic of the Week covered the New Zealand-based Martin Jetpack.
Humans might be imperfect creatures, but technology helps level the playing field. Be it restoring hearing to the deaf with cochlear implants, artificial limbs for amputees, or a mind-machine interface to steer a quadriplegic's wheelchair, we have the power to repair the damage the world might carelessly inflict upon us.
Technology is, ultimately, the realization of the ancient dream of working your will on the world. Whether it's healing the sick, bending space to chat with your friends over a webcam, or living a parallel life in an immersive video game, technology's pace is only going to increase in the future. And it's going to be the future soon.
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