Our relationship with our technology: An unequal partnership

Philip Dick wrote about it. William Gibson centred much of his fiction on it. What is our relationship with our technology? People like to think they are the Masters or Mistresses and that their machines do their bidding but I think it is the other way round. I perceive this partnership as essentially an unequal one, with the balance of power favouring the technology.

It can be as simple an interaction as an attempt to communicate with a bank or the people who deliver bottled water. 'Voice-recognition' or 'voice-activated' software, often touted as the ultimate advance with respect to communication is a nightmare.

I recently overheard a conversation between a girl and her cellphone. I cannot recall the exchange verbatim but it went something like this:
Cellphone: 'What listing?'
Girl: 'Harriet'.
Cellphone: 'You want to call Home?'
Girl: No. 'Harriet'.
Cellphone: 'You want to call Rick?'
Girl (speaking louder and more distinctly): No, Harriet.

And so on and so forth, the girl becoming rather bitter in her seemingly circular argument with her own servant machine!

I have had the same conversation dozens of times with merchants who have the same sort of software.

They cannot get it right. I eliminate my 'accent', attempt to flatten my delivery and the machine still does not comprehend.

Ultimately, there is only ONE solution in every instance: to simply repeat, again and again, the words, 'Customer Service' until the machine untangles its translation and sends you to a REAL human being.

I cannot imagine what horrors will be in store for users who eliminate their keyboards on their computers in order to use 'voice-activated' software. Give me a keyboard any day, although a keyboard on a computer is subject to the same glitches and quirks as any technological item.

For example, on my laptop, when I am typing, very often the machine inexplicably will jump to a previous paragraph and insert my text there. Worse than that is the programming that causes the machine to highlight a paragraph or portion of a paragraph quite without my permission and then DELETE it! Fortunately, I discovered that 'Undo' SOMETIMES if not always can be applied here to restore the cut text.

When I contacted the makers of the laptop, I was told that this is unavoidable, caused somehow by the close proximity of ALL the keys and the sensitivity of the keyboard. I attempted to change the sensitivity to make the keyboard as insensitive as the worst lout and cad, but in vain... Yes, I type very quickly, but I never had this trouble in pre-computer days.

My laptop turns itself on and off without my permission, installs programmes without my permission, all under the guise of 'protecting' me from harm and danger. I try to limit its autonomy but one reaches points constantly where the machine refuses to act, saying that updates are required...

One of AOL's 'updates' in the past year or so added nasty advertisements to their site AND forced me to include them in my emails. Under the guise of 'improving' performance or 'security', it appears to me that most of these 'updates' and changes are motivated by greed, thinly disguised as a concern for the user's welfare. AOL became a 'free service' after all the advertising was added. I personally would have preferred to pay a minimal fee to keep my life free from these intruders.

There are few programmes that do not require 'updates', sometimes shutting down the computer at an inopportune moment. Yesterday, I was working on a document and had been writing for almost two hours. I had to step away from the laptop for a moment. When I returned, it was 'recovering from an unexpected shutdown'. All my work was LOST.

This caused me to think about the relationship we have with these machines and how much of our time is spent waiting for them to respond or installing 'updates' and 'improvements' that seldom improve anything for the machine's human user. Furthermore, how many of us really know what our machines are DOING???

It is not only hackers who assume control of our computers. There are countless outside influences that dictate the actions of our machines at any given moment. You may be doing NOTHING at all when the machine begins to work furiously at some hidden task... Go into the Task Manager menu and you may or may not understand what application is being used or what programme is involved...

It is not computers alone that bedevil our lives. Telephones are extremely sophisticated, including all sorts of programming that prevent any simple interaction. You have to spend at least half an hour with ANY new machine to programme it or make it ready to function on YOUR behalf.

There is a part of me that loves technology. It is akin to magic, really. On the other hand, any adept in magic knows that allowing the jinn to escape from the bottle, or conjuring a demon or spirit is dangerous... Control and vigilance are required on a constant basis. Otherwise, the power will take matters into its own hands to perform actions that are part of its own hidden agenda... It is no different, I would say, with technological 'powers'.

N.B. Photograph of what may be the most utterly cool cellphone in the world... I don't know, never having seen it 'in the flesh' as it were... By 'servants' like this are we seduced and yet... and yet... For all the little wonders it promises to deliver, how much time would be spent serving IT?

Am I ready for the Dance with Death?

(Dumuzi returns from the Underworld Reborn)


There is a very high price for true 'rebirth' and I wonder how many people really are willing to pay it. It is at the heart of most religious mysteries, but in reality, few ever voluntarily embrace loss enthusiastically in order to begin anew.

As a player of video games who writes guides for them and therefore spends quite a lot of energy and time on role-playing simulation games, people may think that I am not 'in touch' with this reality but in fact, the experience of a role-playing simulation game recently made me aware once again of the ephemeral nature of THIS life.

A defective technology was responsible for two catastrophic experiences I had recently, both of which forced me to realise once again how fragile life actually is. It is not as though I have no personal experience of facing death in reality as I almost died shortly after I 'reached my majority'. Our psyches are conditioned to recover from those shocks, however, and we become involved with daily routines and petty ambitions, despite our best intentions to make every day 'count'.

Those 'near death' experiences that all of us have had are quite different. Usually they occur so rapidly that we have gone through the experience almost before we have been able to respond to it. When I was a passenger in a car that narrowly avoided collision with a juggernaut, or when I was walking down the street in Manhattan only to find myself face to face with a guy with a gun in his hand and his finger on the trigger, those experiences occurred so quickly that my emotions did not respond until after the threat.

In any case, the first of my two recent 'catastrophes' was in my life as a male farmer in Forget-Me-Not Valley. I had done everything properly, worked diligently and formed the highest degree of friendship with every one in the Valley. All the girls were in love with me and any of them would have accepted my Blue Feather, thereby accepting a proposal of marriage.

I had a full set of Mythic Tools, the most powerful tools on Earth as well as every magical Accessory. I had upgraded my crops and animals steadily, never shirking my responsibilities. I attended and participated in every Festival. I was a Billionaire. I had a private Island with a little cottage on that Island as well as the largest farmhouse that could be built. I had completed my Cookbook and my Shipping List. In short, I had fulfilled most of my ambitions and was about to choose a spouse.

It was at this point, when I had prepared fully to embark upon the next stage of my life that the game froze at the point of loading in BOTH files, thereby wiping out my entire existence.

Six months of intensive labour in this 'real' world as well as a couple of years of intensive labour in
Forget-Me-Not Valley were wiped out in an instant.

Even if it is 'only a game', one does invest a certain amount of energy and concentration into it, as well as having an emotional attachment to the character. It is one thing to decide not to play any longer, but quite another to have one's game destroyed arbitrarily by some outside force.

Natsume, the creators of Harvest Moon games, do make an effort to incorporate the vicissitudes of Nature and life into their games. As I thought about this, I realised that, although the 'freeze file' glitch was not intentional, it really was not that different from our reality, where Death can intervene at any moment.

Yes, I had done everything correctly, and had worked earnestly and diligently to fulfil all goals, but what is the significance of this in ANY reality?

In this life, beggars and millionaires are equally impotent when Death knocks at the door. One can do everything right in life as well and still be forced to face the fact that we are not in charge here. We cannot make a 'deal' with Life by fulfilling requirements on some arcane cosmic list in return for longevity or immortality.

I suppose all of this is obvious stuff, but philosophy and experience are two different things entirely and one often forgets that we are not conducting our own symphonies. There is no promise that we will be allowed to complete the 'game'.

'Life in the here and now' is the advice of many philosophers, but I do not agree with that. What I do believe is that one needs to be aware of one's heart's ultimate desire and to strive to fulfil that at least without putting it off. The future may or may not exist for any of us. If we wish to have any share in that future, we need to perform our deeds of glory or create our masterpieces NOW. If we do not have any aspirations of that nature, then by all means, we can live according to an Epicurean or existentialist philosophy or any other code that takes our fancy.

This brings me to the second catastrophe. This was caused by defective technology as well, but had far more ramifications in this reality. My internet provider sent a prompt to the effect that my computer needed to be restarted. When I restarted the computer, I no longer appeared to exist on my own computer. My desktop screensaver had disappeared. More distressing than this, however, was the fact that all my files had vanished as well. All the research for my 'serious' writing, all my notes and journals, as well as the game guides I had written and was in the process of writing were gone. It was as though I never had existed at all, had never typed a single word on the keyboard.

An alien force of some kind had entered my little space and had removed any evidence of my presence completely.

I was devastated. Those who may be experts with computers may not have reacted as emotionally as I. There was a little part of me that hoped it was something that could be reversed, that the information was 'hiding' somewhere rather than having been wiped from the computer. Even so, I did not know if I ever would see those files again.

I spent a sleepless night over it. I could not access the internet at all, and therefore could not access online 'help'. I did not realise that telephone help is available at any hour but even if I had, my physical condition would not have allowed me to become involved with technological problems in the middle of the night. It had to wait until the morning.

While waiting for the dawn, I began to think about both 'catastrophes' and how there are far worse fates...
One could lose everything in a fire. One could lose a limb in an accident. One could be forced to endure terrible tortures or imprisonment. One could lose every loved one...

People are forced to face these catastrophes every day. Even if I had lost all my work, I still am alive to write again. Even if my life in Forget-Me-Not Valley is gone, I can begin a new life there, provided I can maintain any enthusiasm for it. The key here to everything is determination. One must be willing to begin anew. If one cannot do that, one is lost.

It is this that is at the heart of every mystery religion. One must be willing to die in order to be reborn. We read about it and some of us even experience religious rituals that re-enact the death and rebirth of a god. Yet few of us really ever allow ourselves to 'wipe the slate clean' and to begin again with a 'tabula rasa'.

Life is an investment in time, emotion and energy. We do not like to lose our investments. When we 'die', we must let go of every investment we have made.

In the ancient mystery religions, any one who wished to be initiated had to undergo a period of strict preparation in terms of fasting and spiritual questioning. Those who wished to experience the sacred mysteries had to undergo the mystery of death before they could experience a new birth.

We tend to hold fast to our little securities, whether it is our computer files or our homes, jobs and relationships. Society certainly does not want us to do otherwise. 'Vagrants' are a danger to society.
Those who are not concerned with material security cannot be compelled to do things they do not want to do. It is the 'vagrant' who is truly free, but the price that the homeless pay is very high. That sort of freedom is synonymous with deprivation.

Like madmen, vagrants operate according to their own rules, and are not persuaded by the ordinary considerations that regulate our lives. Whether it is a matter of deportment, attire or behaviour, the 'mentally ill' and the 'homeless' are immune to the pressures that control ordinary lives. I shan't say 'ordinary people' because I do not believe that there is such a creature as an 'ordinary person'. I believe that 'facilis est descensus Averni' and that any of us could find ourselves quite suddenly 'on the outside looking in'.

Should we pity those individuals or envy them? When I thought that all my work had vanished, I was distraught but if it had, would it have forced me to embark upon a completely different path? I cannot imagine reliving ANY life again. Only words that are really worth writing are worth writing a second time! How many words have I written are really worth THAT effort?

I hope there are a few, of course, but not having been forced to endure that 'death' and 'rebirth', I must try to use my imagination alone to persuade me to a higher level of creativity. I always have longed to penetrate the sacred mysteries of life, death and rebirth, but when it comes to the 'sticking point', I discover that I am as attached to this reality as any one. I was thrilled to see my desktop and files restored but perhaps if I were truly 'enlightened', I would have embraced the possibility of total destruction with enthusiasm, seeing within it the seed of rebirth.

Science, Science Fiction, Paranoia and Politics

Today I read an AP news report of tiny 'spy coins' that have been discovered on American defence contractors in Canada. Although the article claims rather offhandedly that the CIA has used coins to hide data, it then proceeds to puzzle over this new type of 'spy coin' and its possible purpose and effects. The actual coins that are the subject of the report supposedly are Canadian coins of an undisclosed denomination. The U.S. 'government' claimed that the mysterious 'coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.'

What does this mean? Let us examine the 'facts' insofar as fact makes its appearance here.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service claims they know nothing whatsoever about the existence of these 'spy coins'. Experts in the technology declare that the possible uses of coins of this sort would be extremely limited in any event. The distance within which the coin could operate would be very restricted, the metal in the coins would interfere with transmission of any signal and coins are liable to be exchanged unwittingly in the course of natural commerce.

All these considerations aside, what is the effect of a report like this on the general public? Many readers like myself will find it rather amusing, a sort of James Bond fantasy not to be taken too seriously. Others, however, may find the very concept of a 'spy coin' terrifying and further 'proof' of the extraordinary power and cleverness of 'America's enemies'. An article like this generates more paranoia to fuel the 'war on terrorism', an undeclared general war on nebulous enemies that can be targeted according to the government's current whims and can be widened to embrace any number of targets, regardless of their nationality, religion or affiliations.

Thinking of Fleming's recent posts on UFOs, I was prompted to consider that these 'spy coins' may represent an ultimately verifiable scientific technology and yet, does not so much of our response continue to depend on our individual perception? (Actually, who is to believe ANYTHING the media reports? The 'objective observer' is one thing, but the media is quite another and seldom has in its ranks any truly objective observers. For my part, I have come to see that even the 'reasonable man' beloved of the Law is as much as mythical creature as the banshee or the brownie.)