Nostalgia

I'm a little frustrated, as once more, I was woken in the middle of the night with very low blood sugar readings! That's, what, 4 nights in a row? Not cool! Jerry, though, loves it - he thinks that it's a signal to play when I wake up. Don has been having pains in his legs again, and is having a lot of difficulty walking. I'm sitting in a waiting room at the hospital as I write, as I'm scheduled for a CT scan this evening. Unusually, it's a "late evening" appointment, and there's nobody at reception, but 4 patients waiting.

I was watching reruns of some old (1980'S, 1990's) detective shows lately. It's fun watching as they "introduce new technology” that's now obsolete. Like fax machines, CD-ROM directories, digital cameras and cell phones (with antennae!) I was amused at the old CRT monitors, as the "latest" tech -or 5.25" floppy disks... My niece has absolutely no idea what many of those are; they are as foreign to her as 8- track cassettes are to me. It's really amazing how many changes there have been in a short time! I remember that my class in high school had the first computers in the school — Apple Lisa, IIRC — and we could play a bit at programming in BASIC.  We didn’t have any teachers who could use them, so a few of us were happy to experiment with them. I still have my early book on how to program the immortal "Hello World" message that was the introduction we all got. I do not, though, remember enough to write any more code. Once upon a time, I was fairly proficient in C + +. but my skills are as outdated as FORTRAN.

I still remember my feelings of awe when I first used a 300-baud modem to connect to a BBS and thus be introduced to the Internet. It was truly amazing to download messages and communicate with people on the far side of the planet. Back then, we saw the potential for bringing people together. and opening opportunities to the disadvantaged. It was a dream to be able to freely talk with my deaf friends. who couldn't use a telephone but who could type messages in a BBS chat. Anne was eager to learn, and for her children (my godchildren) to be able to learn so they could talk freely. I remember us talking (in ASL) about her getting a computer so that the kids could learn to use it, and therefore she’d be able to “hear” their ideas as they grew.  Sadly, that never happened, but all 3 are as proficient as could be expected of millennials (but much less entitled than the average!)

I remember the optimism that existed when we thought about being able to collaborate widely and rapidly through email and chats; and the debates about how to provide access broadly and cheaply to maximize use… that dream has happened to some extent, but not the completely free world we imagined.  Even my rose-coloured glasses can’t shut out some of the negative effects of social media in particular, starting with increased rates of depression, lowered self esteem and so on, associated with use of apps like IG and the image-based, often manufactured, lifestyles on display!  I can’t help but compare our reality with the visions of this era that were dreamt up by science fiction writers in the early part of the twentieth century (and late 19th… I mean, Jules Verne envisioned a nuclear submarine!)  You really do need to admire the inventiveness that created a 2-way communication device in a watch, or a system of instantly produced, rapidly updated newspapers, or robots that were indistinguishable from humans.

I wonder how many of our current tech devices will still exist in 10 years?  I’ve seen videos of children being asked to use things like a rotary phone, or a Walkman, or to load film into an instamatic camera, and they’re totally confounded… how many of our devices will have the same reaction to kids in 20 years?  Will they ask why so many crimes went unsolved because we didn’t know or use techniques that will become commonplace?  So many questions.  We really have managed to increase our ability to work magic!  (Magic, of course, being defined as “any sufficiently advanced technology”. A. C. Clarke). OK, I’m being called in… have a good night!