On Progress

“Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.” ~ Ogden Nash

The most recent Computerworld magazine featured an article called “Information Overload” by Mary Brandel. She begins by citing the remarks of Jeff Saper, a tech firm chief information officer who drives a hybrid car and has been highly sensitive to green issues. Saper’s concern today, however, is not air and water pollution. Rather, it’s digital pollution, information overload.

Change is a challenge for everyone, but we can usually find ways to make necessary adjustments when the changes come piecemeal. On the other hand, when a tidal wave of new technologies hits us all at once impacting every facet of our lives, it really can make us feel like we are drowning.

Even this morning this issue interfered with my life. I was wakened early by a periodic chirping noise. Assuming it was one of our three fire alarms with a low battery, I sat here and then there and then over by the stairs trying to determine which was the one, tracking down the source like a good Sherlock Holmes. Well, turns out to have been inside a pouch on the kitchen counter. My wife's cell phone battery was low, needing a charge.

How I long for the good old days of my youth when the most complicated decision you had to make was whether to throw to first or hope to get the lead runner sliding into third. The way we increased volume on our bicycles was to put baseball cards in the spokes, not electronic gadgets on the handlebars. Nearly any task on a car's engine could be figured out with a wrench, logic and common sense.

Nowadays, our cars are far more complex, as well as our bikes, our phones, our jobs and our lives. Computers are in most homes in America, but how many IT people live at your house? Not many homes come with an IT technician, so we have to learn how to fix modems, debug software, figure out anti-virus programs, and resolve Internet access issues just to do basic daily correspondence (via email, of course).

In short, we live in a world of mental clutter. In addition to complications caused by all these technical advances, our minds are filled with a trunk load of relationship issues, career issues, parenting issues, health issues, housing issues, problems with neighbors, addictions, mental “to do” lists and more. It’s simply a side effect of living a busy life in the modern world. Our heads are filled with a continuous “white noise” or mental chatter that serves as a perpetual distraction.

This is what “progress” in the civilized world has brought us to, it seems. No wonder we’re so distracted, neurotic and frenetic.

I remember sitting in the back seat of a car with a twelve year old boy in the 1980’s who was able to solve Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute. I couldn’t do the thing to save my life, yet here was this kid who simply astounded me with the rapidity of his hand movements directed by conscious decisions.

Later, upon reflection, I realized that he could devote 100% of his attention to the problem of solving the Cube. I was using only ten per cent of my brain, preoccupied as I was with career decisions, relationship issues, financial issues, etc. How wonderful to live in that age of innocence called youth.

Alas, youth is pretty short lived. Sooner or later, despite Peter Pan’s intentions to the contrary, most of us have to assume a measure of responsibility and participate in the modern world. At least, if you are a Westerner.