“Oh, How the Tables Turn”

 

                Reading the article for this week was an interesting, and somewhat creepy, experience.    I am sure that in 1946 when this was published, most readers thought it was insane, unlikely, and almost impossible for such things to actually happen in real life.  This had to be just the imaginative rantings of a technological mind.  Fast forward nearly seventy years though, and it is like reading the local newspaper about what is happening on a daily basis.

                The ability to simply “google it” has become an everyday, common luxury.  If there is anything that we want to do, and don’t know how to do it, we simply ask the “logics”.  I found the wife’s reaction to the new services absolutely hilarious!  She was nearly hysterical that anyone and everyone would be able to find any available information about her, and wanted to put a stop to it right away.  But not before, of course, she was able to look up all her neighbors and dig up whatever dirt she could find about them!  This is today’s society to a tee.  We all want our privacy, and to be left alone, in general. Yet who among us hesitates to read the latest tabloid style story posted on any random website about the newest so called celebrity we love to hate?  Careless users today may text, or post inappropriate pictures of themselves and then are devastated when the unintended person, or people (sometimes numbering in the millions), are able to view it as well.

                I do not believe that there is one person who uses the internet on a fairly regular basis who has not ever had the experience of searching for one, innocent thing, and having the dreaded pop up of explicit, and usually unwanted pictures.  "It was a nice kinda world once," I says, bitter. "I could go home peaceful and not have belly-cramps wonderin' if a blonde has called up my wife to announce my engagement to her. I could punch keys on a logic without gazing into somebody's bedroom while she is giving her epidermis a air bath and being led to think things I gotta take out in thinkin'.”  I personally live in fear of this exact thing happening to my poor unsuspecting children.  I monitor their computer use very closely in my own home, but they have so much access, in so many places, it is nearly impossible to watchdog every approach.

The idea that stood out the loudest to me was the conversation between the two workers. The main character is in a panic, and insists that they just turn the entire system off to stop the chaos that is happening.  The co-worker’s response to this is epic! "Shut down the tank?" he says, mirthless. "Does it occur to you, fella, that the tank has been doin' all the computin' for every business office for years? It's been handlin' the distribution of ninety-four per cent of all telecast programs, has given out all information on weather, plane schedules, special sales, employment opportunities and news; has handled all person-to-person contacts over wires and recorded every business conversation and agreement— Listen, fella! Logics changed civilization. Logics are civilization! If we shut off logics, we go back to a kind of civilization we have forgotten how to run!

Wow.  Now THAT is prophetic.  There is really not one single aspect of our lives in general anymore that is not completely overwhelmed with technology.  We have become utterly dependent on it to the point that it dictates and governs most of our choices day to day.  It is unimaginable to contemplate what the world would become if we were required to shut down the internet.  I am picturing widespread hysteria as everyone re-learns the incredible processes required to function and communicate in a world that is suddenly round again.  Who could have known that the machines we created to serve us, make our lives easier, would one day turn the tables and have us wholly in their influence?

“The Great Conductors”

Who knew there were so many people and places involved in the building of one small individual notebook?  I have to be honest and say that I read the first few stops and then just scanned over the rest of that really HUGE paragraph detailing all the possible locations for each key part of a Dell laptop.  It really makes sense though considering that each one is built to certain specifications requested by the customer.  How else could this be accomplished except by “just in time” manufacturing? An entire 747 just for computers? Sure! Why not?  I also think that having several suppliers for each specific part is brilliant on Dell’s part.  What a way to keep everyone on their toes, knowing that if you don’t get them what they need there are two or three other companies just waiting for the opportunity to do so.  They are rulers of the so called “supply chain symphony”, expertly organizing and fulfilling orders from around the world.

Unfortunately they are not the only ones to latch on to the power of the supply chain.  Al-Qaeda has manipulated the flattening of our world to their advantage as well.  They have formed a chain of destruction that only requires “recruits, donors, and victims” (Friedman p. 595).  They raise money, entice followers, and distribute their tools of annihilation all over the world.  Their reach is limitless.  It is terrifying what can be accomplished when the world is flat.  There are no longer barriers to searching out and connecting with one another.  It is now child’s play to locate and communicate with those that are already distraught or sympathize with radical movements.  I cannot wrap my head around the idea of the suicide supply chain.  What a gross misuse of human life. 

                It is infuriating to me to see that one group of people can take such an awesome invention and turn it into a tool for growth, collaboration, and good. Then another group of people can take that exact same awesome invention and twist and manipulate it into a tool of destruction, horror, and evil.  There are so many times in this life that I have said, “Man just imagine if they would use those brains for something productive?”  In this case, we already have proof of what can happen!  Two polar opposite effects from the same product. Each has become master maestros of the orchestra supply chain they have chosen to create.

            This same idea holds true with countries that are focused on tapping into natural resources such as oil.  The so called curse of having such resources is that while it provides money and assets for the country, it keeps the rulers from having to answer to the people because the wealth was not obtained through taxing the people.  Because they have no one to answer to, often times the ruling parties spend on “boosting wasteful subsidies rather than on much needed development and new technology” (Friedman pg. 627).  This is yet another prime example of wasting an amazing asset. 

            It is sad to think that even when the world is daily becoming more and more flat, and we complain about it due to the increased competition, there are still so many that are unaware and have not experienced the advantages that come with it.  Our experience is completely dependent on who is “leading the music”.

“Fish Out of Water”

            Asking me to explain how technology has affected my education would be similar to asking an oceanic creature how water has had an effect on their ability to live.  Literally every single aspect of my college education (well, since returning after a 12 year “break”) has been completed via computer.  Every single class that I have taken has been online.  Originally this was merely for scheduling convenience because I have two children.  One was in school, and one that was not yet school aged.  I needed extreme flexibility in my schedule.  This has now changed; it is still about convenience, but in a different way.  Now the convenience is location.  We have moved and live almost on the Idaho border.  This isn’t an insurmountable distance, but it would definitely be a time and financial drain to be required to travel the 100 miles round trip several times a week to attend school.

The ability to go to school on my time is completely incredible.  I am able to make my schedule work around putting kids on the bus, work, cooking, cleaning, kid’s homework, bedtime, etc.  I am absolutely, one hundred percent positive that my return to college would not have been even the slightest bit possible without computers. 

Class schedules, assignments, due dates, and syllabus are all related to me via the internet by connecting to Weber State’s website.  I complete, and submit assignments online, and receive my grades and teacher comments back the same way.  I request, and take tests through a designated proctor using a computer as well.  Technology has also allowed me to feel connected, not only with my professors, but with classmates.  I have participated in several group collaborations, and have the ability to contact each student individually, along with each professor regarding any concerns or questions that may come up over the course of the semester.  I feel like this is one of the most important benefits of the advancing age that we live in.  I have never seen, spoken to, or met any of my professors, yet I can quite easily communicate with each one when it is necessary through email. 

Computers have given everyone the exact same access to education.  No, I do not get the advantage of going to class, and hearing lectures in person, and mingling with other students, but I have the even greater advantage of scheduling my time around a very busy and complicated life outside of school.  I am required to complete the same assignments, and often am able to watch or listen to lectures.  How do I do that?  You guessed it!  On the computer.  Again, the beauty of this is that I can do it when I CHOOSE to (well as long as I am able to complete the assignments on time).

Computers have been the catalyst to my education, so to speak.  Without computers and technology, my education would have ended back in 2000, after completing only one year of college right out of high school. Technology took away most of the excuses that I had built around myself as a wall to justify the fact that I had not, and was not, doing anything to complete my education. 

 In this day and age, we (as in all of us, myself included!) have become totally dependent. I really feel that without our hi-tech luxuries society as we now know it would come to a standstill.