My Dordogne driving questions
Jan 27th, 2005, 07:21 AM
#42
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St. Cirq, I have that same 'sensory' thing about my books and magazines. I love the feel of the page. My uncle has such bad macro-degeneration he uses 'books on tape'. Nice invention, but I really dread that ever happening. I love the associations that seeing a printed word or phrase can produce.
Jan 27th, 2005, 07:32 AM
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Robespierre, finally, finally, you said: <<Not wrong, just different.> Now I think THAT's true, but if you'd just said it in that spirit in the first place, there wouldn't have been this huge, somewhat heated, but somewhat interesting and informative discussion.
I don't have a laptop or a pocket computer, and didn't even have a cell phone a year ago, so a way of life in which I'd have access to means of research, personal records, music, directions, reading material, communication with friends, on demand from a little machine in my possession is totally alien to me. Just 4 1/2 years ago, I didn't have a computer either, and didn't miss one. Now I'm hooked on one, but I have mixed feelings, because, while it has enriched my life in many ways, stimulating and satisfying my curiosity about so many things, and helping me connect with old and new friends, it has too often made me lose track of time that I would otherwise have spent outdoors, in physical activities, having more varied sensory experiences, making things, using my eyes to look far away. While I feel terrible being without my computer for even a week at home when it's being repaired, I never miss it at all on vacation. Generally, nor do I miss having a car, radio, TV, lots of books, or easy access to a phone during a two or three-week vacation. That's not to say that all those things aren't useful or enjoyable or, in some situations, absolutely necessary. But, for now, I like vacations to be a little bit of a vacation from technology, too. (As you said, "not wrong, just differnt."
I don't have a laptop or a pocket computer, and didn't even have a cell phone a year ago, so a way of life in which I'd have access to means of research, personal records, music, directions, reading material, communication with friends, on demand from a little machine in my possession is totally alien to me. Just 4 1/2 years ago, I didn't have a computer either, and didn't miss one. Now I'm hooked on one, but I have mixed feelings, because, while it has enriched my life in many ways, stimulating and satisfying my curiosity about so many things, and helping me connect with old and new friends, it has too often made me lose track of time that I would otherwise have spent outdoors, in physical activities, having more varied sensory experiences, making things, using my eyes to look far away. While I feel terrible being without my computer for even a week at home when it's being repaired, I never miss it at all on vacation. Generally, nor do I miss having a car, radio, TV, lots of books, or easy access to a phone during a two or three-week vacation. That's not to say that all those things aren't useful or enjoyable or, in some situations, absolutely necessary. But, for now, I like vacations to be a little bit of a vacation from technology, too. (As you said, "not wrong, just differnt."
Jan 27th, 2005, 08:28 AM
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hopingtotravel, your comment reminds me of a conversation I had with my father about thirty years ago, when I acquired my first synthesizer.
"But...it's just a bunch of wires that make sound," he (an Electrical Engineer!) said. "It's so...unnatural."
"And what," I replied, "do you find natural about the innards of a piano? Or a violin? Or a trombone? Or a pipe organ? They're all mechanical contraptions that create tones of specific frequencies."
About two weeks later, he called me and said, "I agree. An electronic musical instrument is just another way of generating sound artificially."
And cmt,
what difference does it make what you derive satisfaction from? If hiking or swimming were more important to you, you'd do <u>that</u> instead of exploring with your computer.
I think the very notion that I can send a message instantaneously anywhere in the world that I want to is simply mind-boggling. I understand exactly how it happens, down to the transistor gate level, but I'm nonetheless astounded that it does.
"But...it's just a bunch of wires that make sound," he (an Electrical Engineer!) said. "It's so...unnatural."
"And what," I replied, "do you find natural about the innards of a piano? Or a violin? Or a trombone? Or a pipe organ? They're all mechanical contraptions that create tones of specific frequencies."
About two weeks later, he called me and said, "I agree. An electronic musical instrument is just another way of generating sound artificially."
And cmt,
what difference does it make what you derive satisfaction from? If hiking or swimming were more important to you, you'd do <u>that</u> instead of exploring with your computer.
I think the very notion that I can send a message instantaneously anywhere in the world that I want to is simply mind-boggling. I understand exactly how it happens, down to the transistor gate level, but I'm nonetheless astounded that it does.
Jan 27th, 2005, 09:03 AM
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<<And cmt,
what difference does it make what you derive satisfaction from? If hiking or swimming were more important to you, you'd do that instead of exploring with your computer.>>
That's actually not necessarily true. and I think it's because most of us do not weigh the pros and cons of our options regarding every bit of unstructured time that we spend. I think what often operates is inertia, or at least it does with me. Once on the computer to check e-mail, to look up one bit of info, to check 3 or 4 message boards, I tend to stay longer and longer. Time may pass, and I may delay going out and doing something I may really like better. Similarly, once I go out for a quick one-block walk, if the weather and the color of the sky and the lightness or heaviness of my jacket and my dog's behavior are just right, I may very well keep walking for a few miles and then not have time for something else I'd been intending to do. I used to draw for many hours, many times a week. I loved to draw. But it was sometimes hard to get started, when it was so much easier to turn to other less challenging activities, like cooking, reading that I liked, but not nearly as much. But once I did satrt, drawing could easily consume my day, making me skip meals, neglect errands, put off walking my dog, and then get up to do more of same the next day because I was on a roll. Maybe it shouldn't, but I do think that inertia--of rest or of movement--in fact does have a big effect on how many of us spend our time, and sometimes overrides the choices we might make if we exericized strong will and made conscious choices about how to spend each segment of the day, instead of letting ourselves just drift sometimes. Neither approach alone is ideal, but some moderate blend would probably be best.
By the way, this is way off topic, isn't it.
what difference does it make what you derive satisfaction from? If hiking or swimming were more important to you, you'd do that instead of exploring with your computer.>>
That's actually not necessarily true. and I think it's because most of us do not weigh the pros and cons of our options regarding every bit of unstructured time that we spend. I think what often operates is inertia, or at least it does with me. Once on the computer to check e-mail, to look up one bit of info, to check 3 or 4 message boards, I tend to stay longer and longer. Time may pass, and I may delay going out and doing something I may really like better. Similarly, once I go out for a quick one-block walk, if the weather and the color of the sky and the lightness or heaviness of my jacket and my dog's behavior are just right, I may very well keep walking for a few miles and then not have time for something else I'd been intending to do. I used to draw for many hours, many times a week. I loved to draw. But it was sometimes hard to get started, when it was so much easier to turn to other less challenging activities, like cooking, reading that I liked, but not nearly as much. But once I did satrt, drawing could easily consume my day, making me skip meals, neglect errands, put off walking my dog, and then get up to do more of same the next day because I was on a roll. Maybe it shouldn't, but I do think that inertia--of rest or of movement--in fact does have a big effect on how many of us spend our time, and sometimes overrides the choices we might make if we exericized strong will and made conscious choices about how to spend each segment of the day, instead of letting ourselves just drift sometimes. Neither approach alone is ideal, but some moderate blend would probably be best.
By the way, this is way off topic, isn't it.
