Beth's Ponderings
There is a movement
in our world to make our society completely cashless, and more digital - in
various areas, not just in money transactions.
Now, I can
understand these people feel that going totally digital will make our lives
easier (while governments want to use it as a means of keeping a closer eye on
us and our activities), but will it really make our lives easier?
Ever since the
Industrial Revolution, we humans have been on an insatiable quest to make our
everyday lives easier and less labour-intensive. And, by and large, we were successful. For example, power machines made jobs easier,
vacuums and automatic washing machines changed how household cleaning was done,
and microwaves made meal preparation a snap.
Then, along came
the Technology Revolution, which has had the biggest impact on our lives, in
the shortest amount of time. Computers
of all sizes have now infiltrated every area of our lives - we literally can’t
get away from them. People, who used to
complain about the phone always ringing, now can’t put down their cell phones
for even a minute lest they miss out on something.
But...are our lives
any better?
And what is going
to be the ramification of all this digitalization?
Because, even
though we have a fairly stable power grid here in North America ,
the power does go off occasionally. Most
times it is only for a short period of time, but sometimes it lasts for days
when Mother Nature occasionally likes to remind us that she is in charge, not
us, as she wreaks havoc on our infrastructure.
And even if we don’t
have to worry about our power sources, technology isn’t infallible. It can, and certainly does, break down, or
just stop working at the most inopportune times.
Now, I’m not
advocating that we return to pre-technology days, because there are advantages
to our technology, but I think we do need to be cautious how much faith we put
into that technology, because at the end of the day, we can’t eat digital food
or breathe digital air.
Beth
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