• It isn’t a surprise to me that I am 63. I have led an incredibly dull life, with a minimum of risks. I don’t ride motorcycles, have never been to war or prison.
  • Walking

Celibate or Chaste?

~ "Start the ball, Tector."

Celibate or Chaste?

Category Archives: Futurism

“Shazzam”

02 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by David in Futurism, Smartphones, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Technology

I got a text from a long time friend just as I was sitting down to the huevos rancheros I ordered for brunch at my friendly neighborhood trendy restaurant.

He was on a weekend bicycling excursion to where we call The Center Of The Universe, Ashland,Virginia. Virtual Railcam LLC has a camera placed there, so that trainspotters like me can watch rail traffic at home. (Amtrak’s Northbound Silver Star #92 just passed by.)

He texted to let me know he just bought a cookie and would be riding by the webcam. I have known John since sixth grade. We were roommates our First Year at the University of Virginia. We live in the same town and communicate almost daily.  Fifty-plus year continuing friendships are remarkable these days, but  I could not have imagined receiving a text from him, then seeing him wave at me in a live image on a tiny handheld computer fifty four years ago.

Breath-taking. 

The larger point I want to make is that assumptions we have about progress are being outpaced by that actual progress itself. We still cling to Nineteenth and Twentieth Century ideas about the world and exercise little scepticism about them. Malthusian ideas about population growth and food supply were advanced before mechanization, plant genetics, and animal breeding revolutionized agricultural productivity. Think about that.

Do we face a technological utopia or dis-topia? I don’t know. But our visions of the future say more about us today than they do about what tomorrow has in store.

Advertisements
Advertisements

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014

Categories

  • Adult Children
  • alcoholism
  • American History
  • Amtrak
  • Animal Baby Cuteness
  • Art
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders
  • Baby Names
  • Baltimore
  • Big Business
  • Birthday
  • Bloggers
  • Catholic Life
  • Classical Music
  • cooking
  • Cuba
  • Cycling
  • Depression
  • Dogs
  • Exercise/ Fitness
  • Existential Despair
  • Family
  • Fashion & Grooming
  • food
  • Foreign Films
  • Fruit
  • Futurism
  • Gay/Straight Dichotomy
  • Gender Identity
  • Gender Roles
  • Gentrification
  • grafitti
  • Health Issues
  • Hedonism
  • Housework
  • Literature
  • loneliness
  • Love and stuff
  • memoir
  • Old Cameras
  • Otakon 2016
  • personal grooming
  • Pie Crust
  • Politics
  • Popular Song
  • Refugees
  • Relationships
  • Sacrifice
  • sadomasochism
  • seduction
  • self-indulgence
  • Sexual Identity
  • Sexuality
  • sleep
  • Smartphones
  • Sobriety
  • Soup
  • Sport
  • Suburbia
  • Taste
  • Tattoo
  • Tea
  • Tolerance
  • Uncategorized
  • Vietnam
  • Wildlife
  • World War II

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.