i find computers and technology great, but of course this balance, to paraphrase a quote from the movie Contact: "today we're more connected and yet we feel more lonely than ever, we surf the net, shop at home, we're a kind of synthesized society..." I think of the self-checkout at grocery stores and bigger places like home depot. They're entirely impersonal, nobody to talk with there. Same as the banks where you see a person through a camera screen somewhere else, you can't chit chat really with that.. As well, i find the internet and communication here to be really disembodied, which is where feelings are, maybe its just me, but there is a definite paradox with this (the net, technology, global connectivity) which means it is indeed something special and maybe indeed numinous (in the first inkling steps of fruition). What does anyone else think?
But its way more effectient that way, less used resources. You can shop from your comp at home. Or you could drive 30 miles to go buy something. My life is the computer.
so if we've got some quasi-laptop that we can take and walk around with, and we have some sort of ruberic of 'interests' and quantifiers of our characteristics, maybe there will be proximity dating, friendmaking, etc? so, when in public, we actually can meet more people? (like I have heard of these little devices in japan). i get an interesting mental image of lots of introverted young men having these devices walking around at first. ie: if such a thing existed a few years back, i probably would have been hopping on it. though the thing is.. i'd rather not be roaming around with a laptop. id rather be with folks in the flesh and talking, or with myself alone. going outside and roaming is akin to detaching from the technological gutter-web... i dont want to drag it with me everywhere! pansy: yes, you bring a very good point up. these technologies can act as a crutch for people, you can basically live through the computer. i have been in those shoes at one time in life. And it really just makes you shut-off from the outside world, the online/computer world is neither real nor fake, its not outside in nature or the world, and its a personal 'inner world', as found maybe in meditation or drawing or reading or just thinking. good food for thought pansy, thanks for sharing! peace be with
