Thirteen Technological Gizmos
Fri., October 2, 03:13 PM
I first saw this question on Bev’s journal, where she said it came from Miller Manor. The basic request was Thirteen Technological Gizmos I could live without, but would rather not. I was reminded of the question they posed to the legendary George Abbott, whose theatrical career spanned most of the twentieth century. He was asked what was the greatest development he had seen in the theater since he began, and his answer was immediate: “Electricity!” My point is that sometimes we get so accustomed to technology that we forget how miraculous it is. Imagine for a moment, the first time someone figured out how to record a story — on stone or parchment, for example — without needing the presence of the storyteller. Yes, I do consider that technology, as much as making fire, but yes, I also tend to take it for granted. But some of the things that you take for granted appeared within my lifetime.
Anyway, I am going to list thirteen kinds of technology that are important to me, even though they may be very different from yours.
- Microwave ovens.
At first they were almost like toys, but I learned to use them for more specific tasks. I can cook certain meals quickly. It is practical to buy large quantities for freezing if you can thaw one serving quickly. And it uses less electricity than the big oven. - Word processing.
I learned to type on heavy manual typewriters and, believe me, I really appreciated them because I can’t write as fast as I think. Electric typewriters, correcting typewriters, machines where one could change the fonts, machines that saved what you typed — every innovation was wonderful. Not only were they timesavers that made me more efficient, they spoke to that part of my being that wanted to produce pretty letters and articles. Long before there was any kind of communication between the computers, I absolutely loved word processing. - The internet.
What is there to add? This is my lifeline. - Computer spreadsheets and relational databases.
I once spent a week — on my feet because all the papers were laid out across the office — building a spreadsheet to demonstrate a year’s worth of blood collection data. It was my department head’s task, and it should not have been my job at all; but no one else in that whole office was smart enough to do it. The next day I saw a show on public television all about computer spreadsheets. I swore I would never do that physical labor again. I have since built checkbooks and other bookkeeping programs in Excel.
Relational dabatases are like a mirror to my brain. I think that way. It’s a quality that made me a good cataloguer in libraries and a lifelong list maker. It is what made me start my song project, originally on 3x5 index cards. I am about 90 percent left brain. - BathFitters®
I was taught that tiled walls were part of the very best possible bathroom but, let me tell you, a one-piece tub and shower that goes to the ceiling and never leaks into the basement is one of the best investments I made in the Cheesebox. - Modern heating and cooling.
I grew up in a house where one banked the coal furnace at night. On a winter morning, Jack Frost’s artwork was all over the windows, and someone would have to go into the cellar to put more coal in the furnace and start things up again. Having a control in every room is a miracle. Air conditioning is something that probably keeps some of us alive for years more than we could have done in the past. - My cell phone.
They had them on Star Trek, y’know. My first experience of them was the “Linx” phone in my bosses’ cars, and I promised myself that, if I could ever afford it, I was going to have one of those. (I paid the bills at that job; I knew how much they cost.) - On-line banking, direct deposit, ATM’s.
Have you any idea how much gasoline that saves? Not to mention postage, though I do still have specific snail mail tasks. I can always access a balance and can move funds between accounts. I can plan when bills will be paid. (When possible, I set them to pay on Social Security day.) - Answering machines.
I didn’t care for them at first. I bought my first one when I was looking for a new job, because I could not trust Husband to take a message professionally. (He tended to make assumptions, such as that I already knew the caller and did not need the number…) - Caller ID.
This has two uses — being able to ignore phone calls I don’t want as well as the ability to store phone numbers. Not everyone leaves a message. - Self-serve shopping, which gets better all the time.
Personally, I am a hands-on shopper. I want to look at items and read labels; supermarkets are better for me than the neighborhood shop where one asks the clerk for whatever items are needed. A few years ago my favorite supermarket instituted self-checkout, where you take your items to the register, scan them, total them and pay for them. If you are only buying one or two items, this is way better than standing in the so-called speed lane.
It is now also possible to choose and price your own produce and baked goods and, amazingly, people seem to be quite honest about it. Most recently, hand scanners are available as you enter; you swipe your store ID and bag as you scan. You finish by bringing the hand scanner to a register — either self-scan or cashier — to total and pay. There are lots of employees around to assist people with the new technology, so they really haven’t reduced many employees, and the multitude of choices is really liberating. - The Global Positioning System.
Realize, I do not use one. Most of the time, I am not the one doing the driving. When I drive, it’s just around town, where I know all the routes. (I have the maps in my head…) But I don’t like asking for directions any more. You don’t know who people are, and announcing that one is lost is almost like saying, “Potential victim here!” Furthermore, one thing I realized soon after I learned to drive — you can go out of your way a lot farther and faster in a car than you can on foot. - Medical advances.
How can we ignore them — computerized surgeries, new medications, better care. Many of us know we would not be alive without them, Husband and I included. The only thing missing sometimes is access to it all, and universal access is a long way off.
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