Technology - From the Greek τεχνολογία

I was in the spare bedroom of our first apartment when I turned on the PC my wife and I had just purchased and thought, “This whole Windows thing is never going to catch on.” I think we were running version 1.bluescreenofdeath at the time and before I learned the most important command…Ctrl-Alt-Delete. So, after tonight’s open house at the school I started thinking about technology…brought on by the fact that in my kids classroom they have; PC’s with their own individual network login, flat screen TV’s, and Flip Video Cameras. They showed me their PowerPoint presentations.


The fun thing about technology is that we can be completely content with what we have and can’t imagine much if any improvement. But it does leave you wondering what is next. Somewhere in one my economics classes we went over the law of diminishing returns, and explored the fact that it governs darn near everything. On our TV in our family room we pretty much have the whole shooting match for cable…digital, HD, On Demand, PVR, you get the idea. It would seem that diminishing returns certainly govern this. Granted, we could add more movie channels, but other than that we seem tapped out. Well, I thought the same thing when we had expanded cable which gave us about sixty stations. Now, we have God knows how many, including the whole 400 series of which I was unaware of until recently. It seems…well, better. Before you know it, you are wondering how much attention your wife pays to the cable bill and if you can get away with purchasing Tiger’s Wood when everyone is sleeping. (She does pay attention, BTW.)

I never knew I wanted 1,400 songs in something the size of a gum packet, but have went back through security at the airport to my car to retrieve my iPod rather than face the fifty minute flight to Charlotte listening to Broadway’s Brightest Young Stars out of my armrest. Clear Channel controlled radio seemed fine, but satellite radio is definitely better.

The point is, these a few examples of things that seem great until something better comes along…which is usually something we didn’t know we wanted, that turned into something we needed, that became something we can’t live without. Recently, someone was discussing how books may be delivered in the future and said "Imagine reading an e-book that had an interactive interview with the author and video links within the text."  I just might want that.

(How many clicked the Tiger link above?  Come on...I am not that twisted!)