Tech problems are a part of life, of course. The recent problem at CrowdStrike that grounded airlines and prevented 911 from working and interfered with medical services is a scary thing. The word “fragility” was used in the New York Times. Please allow me this jeremiad. I appreciate technology and what it can do for us. I really do. I can usually find a movie to watch online on a day off work. I can navigate most places without a map (although recently when there was no 4G coverage, I was left lost for a little while). What’s really scary, to me, is those who claim tech, and only tech, is our future. I’m a simple guy with simple tastes. I enjoy reading books and watching movies to stimulate my restless imagination. Yet I’m constantly being told that I should read on a screen, not on paper. And that artificial “intelligence” can—or worse—should run things. What happens when the grid goes down?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
" data-orig-size="5760,3840" data-image-title="markus-spiske-Skf7HxARcoc-unsplash" data-orig-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/markus-spiske-skf7hxarcoc-unsplash.jpg" data-image-description="" class="wp-image-16691" width="1024" data-medium-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/markus-spiske-skf7hxarcoc-unsplash.jpg?w=300" role="button" data-permalink="https://steveawiggins.com/2020/12/03/anticipation/markus-spiske-skf7hxarcoc-unsplash/#main" alt="" height="682" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-large-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/markus-spiske-skf7hxarcoc-unsplash.jpg?w=1020" tabindex="0" />Photo by Markus Spiske on UnsplashI love art glass, but I’ve also broken quite a bit of it over the years because life is rough and tumble. Some fragility is part of the attraction. For a while, when I was young, I was fascinated by card houses. Constructing one that used an entire deck was not only a goal, but its own kind of art. Sometimes the beauty of art inheres in its very fragility. The house of cards took skill, but someone slamming a door, or even walking into the room could bring it all down. A trembling hand or a drop from a millimeter too high could spell the end of this particular installation. But nobody died. No worldwide travel plans were interrupted. The consequences were minimal.
I don’t dislike computers. It’s just that I think balance is desirable. After work, which is pretty much all online these days, I tend to move away from the internet for the rest of the day. I pick up a book, made of paper. Sometimes I’ll watch some media, preferably on DVD. I don’t miss VHS tapes, I assure you—although we still have quite a few of them, some of which contain media that has never been released either on disc or online. I can’t watch them. Oh, if I had the time, gumption, and cash I could purchase a player. I’d have to buy some kind of adapter to connect it to the TV. Is that a downgrade? My understanding is that CrowdStrike’s problem was all caused by an upgrade. I’ve known smaller catastrophes with upgrades, and they seem to come every couple of months now. What’s to be done? Maybe we should slow down a little and read a book.