Probably Dance

The current problem with computers was well articulated in the piece The Machine Stops by the late Oliver Sacks:

I cannot get used to seeing myriads of people in the street peering into little boxes or holding them in front of their faces, walking blithely in the path of moving traffic, totally out of touch with their surroundings. I am most alarmed by such distraction and inattention when I see young parents staring at their cell phones and ignoring their own babies as they walk or wheel them along. Such children, unable to attract their parents’ attention, must feel neglected, and they will surely show the effects of this in the years to come.

[…]

These gadgets […] have now immersed us in a virtual reality far denser, more absorbing, and even more dehumanizing. I am confronted every day with the complete disappearance of the old civilities. Social life, street life, and attention to people and things around one have largely disappeared, at least in big cities, where a majority of the population is now glued almost without pause to phones or other devices—jabbering, texting, playing games, turning more and more to virtual reality of every sort.

It reminded me of this quote by Wilson Miner:

The car shaped our environment in the 20th century in this huge, tectonic way. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the screen will be as important to shaping our environment in the 21st century.

I’m not sure if he meant this as a warning, but considering how little we like being in neighborhoods that are built more for cars than for pedestrians, I think it should be interpreted as one.

Read the rest of this entry »