Earlier this week I had medical emergency in the family (fortunately turned out to be very mild case and recovery prognosis is excellent so far).
It made me revisit some thoughts on why exactly I am cold towards fluff in tech (thinking about anything was better than freaking out).
Tech is rapid communication
I remember times when there was no mobile phone in everyone’s pocket. And when fast communication was necessary – it sucked.
We complain about being hyper connected. And bills. And stuff. Well, being disconnected when it matter can cost you worse than few dollars.
Tech is mobile
Now we can do stuff, while stuck in the box with (without) wheels that moves us from point A to point B.
It is neither comfortable or efficient way to do things. Well, it’s much much better than doing nothing.
Tech is awesome
We have misguided (people need to keep selling us new toys after all) idea that awesome tech is large kick-ass video card that draws cute monsters at high frame rate. It’s not.
Tech is awesome when it can virtually slice inside of person’s head into high-contrast precise imagery. Which isn’t as cute as monsters. Well, saving health and lives of people is way better perk than being cute.
Overall
We tend to treat our tech as another form of entertainment. One we gradually get tired off and let push us into newer and crazier and more expensive twists of tech “innovation”.
Real tech is not that. Tech are things that make our lives more convenient, more comfortable and more safe.