Technology - The Way Forward?

We are all in love with technology. We almost hug it with delight.

The cell phone companies make a fortune out of our love affair with the latest technology; we cannot bear to be without it for even the shortest time.

Our ability to contact one another at any time at a moment’s notice is incomparable to anything that existed even a decade ago.

Remember when we had a landline secured to a wall by a cord? Our only method of getting in touch with anyone else was either a telephone in a house or office or, latterly, a fax machine.

Now we have e-mails, ‘What’s App’, hand phones all with almost universal application through a forest of cell towers erected throughout every land to make ourselves available.

Available to whom?

Who is it, apart from a sick relative or a wife about to give birth that it is so important to notify?

Salesmen always managed to do their business without this amenity as did almost everyone else.

You might say that the hand phone is useful for emergency use to call the police, ambulance or fire brigade and so it is, but how often do we have to make an emergency call compared to the number of calls and texts that we make constantly throughout the day?

The other aspect of this is that technology is a wonderful thing – when it works.

Admittedly electronic equipment is becoming more and more reliable as time goes by with the possible exception of ‘Windows’ computers made by the likes of ‘Hewlett Packard’ – but that is a personal problem with which I shall not bore you.

You will be aware that very few cars now have a rod or cable that passes from the accelerator pedal through to the carburettor or injector. No, cars now have an electrical cable that comes from a potentiometer at the throttle pedal to deliver a voltage to the computer at the engine that rations the fuel out in greater or lesser quantities, as required, to the engine.

We are all aware of the problems that certain vehicle manufacturers have had with this technology. We were told that the heat generated by the engine adversely affected the circuits and that is what led to sundry problems.

In my son’s car there was a major problem in that, occasionally, when reverse gear was selected the engine revolutions increased rapidly to a high figure causing the car to accelerate backwards at a frightening rate.

The manufacturers could find nothing wrong and concluded that it was my son’s fault. There’s the rub. Just because they could find nothing wrong does not mean that there was no fault!

They capitulated in the end and a full refund for the vehicle became available.

An example of technology that went wrong. Suddenly the car became dangerous. It was no longer a thing of joy that my son would be proud to entertain his friends with.

Such can be said of so many electronic items now.

A shop in our village specialises in repairing household machines. He tells me that almost all the repairs now are to the electronics. It is often the case that it is cheaper to buy a new machine than it is to repair it.

Much of the expense for repair is because so much is now ‘sealed units’ - machines are modular in nature, so obtaining a few simple parts is out of the question.

One wonders if we are really progressing forward. Perhaps this avid need to acquire the latest gadget is leading us backwards, away from civilisation.

The rubbish tips are filling with discarded items that only a year ago were the latest delight of the proud owner. A tremendous amount of wasted time, money and materials. Many of the raw materials that went into manufacturing this technology was taken from the ground and processed at great cost and, for some, great risk. Certainly they can hardly be said to environmentally friendly.

The answer? We really should think about looking up and speaking face to face with people or has it become a lost art?