Friday, November 21, 2014

Reacting to technology

From Chris Dixon, via Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction, Douglas Adams’s rules describing reactions to technology:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2.Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
I‘m not so sure. I’m fine with the scroll wheel (1995) and the Toyota Prius (1997). I have no interest in, say, TiVo (1999), but it’s no more against the natural order of things than recording with a VCR.

Google Glass (2013) though is against the natural order of things, for people of all ages. It just is.

comments: 2

Daughter Number Three said...

I love the Tivo (especially compared to the DVRs provided by cable companies). Love my smart phone (which came out when I was 47), though I see the downside of them as well. I will most likely never adapt to any of the Nest-type home management systems, though.

Michael Leddy said...

I can’t Imagine using Nest stuff either. Or, say, Amazon’s Echo.