So many things to think about. Feel, sense and wonder.
Sound, aroma, touch. Mood. The sun rises in the sky, travels across our day’s
horizons and then sets; what has transpired in that time? What feelings are called
on as the sun settles in orange splendor? Or rises in bright yellow strobes?
What’s happening now. What busy-ness fills our hours each
day. Getting things done. Building something, not always apparent. Purpose. Function. Roles played and succeeded.
What does it all mean? When do you ask that? and why?
Carl Sagan once said:
“We live in a society exquisitely
dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything
about science and technology.”
Strange isn't it? We labor over hand held devices,
receive and make phone calls on them, scan emails, probe the internet for what's happening at this very moment. Yet we don’t know how these things work. Only
that they do. We catch ourselves wondering what life was like before these
inventions joined our lives. And it is hard to remember how it was. Hardship
used to be traveling without color TV at the end of the day. Then hotels and
motels provided the color.
Remember when we worked our day and maybe once called home
to learn how things were going there, and what was for dinner, or if that
meeting scheduled in the evening was still on? Many years most of us didn't
call home at all. It was something our employers discouraged except in
emergencies. Even then my boss once wondered why I wasn't coming into work now
that my son was born that early morning! Indeed!
Now we bravely go forth each day on our complicated
schedules knowing that we are in touch with our family, friends and office
mates at the touch of fingers on the cell phone. We even know the flow of our
emails and what needs our attention and what can wait for office time.
Convenience and productivity. Modern communications are instant and at hand
24/7. That’s a good thing…and bad. No privacy, constantly ‘on demand’ nowhere to
hide for 15 minutes to catch our breath. But think of it: once we used to
worry about and make arrangements to call each other during the day. It took
coordination and commitment to do so. Today we have cell phones and no need
to coordinate.
Too, we have computers (not one, often three or more!) and
the tools they contain: internet, Google, research engines, email and work
files that deliver facts and consistency whenever we need and want it. So much
easier.
I recall working on complex projects. Many related files of
paper and documents piled high on my desk. I sorted through the files to find
the related and pertinent material needed for the specific step I was working
on to complete the project. Today we have computer screen desktops where icons
represent not just files but whole folders of files. And other folders of still
other related material specific to the project. How much easier is it to create
mental images and ideas with these icons staring me in the face each day?
Relativity of ideas and facts. These accumulate into master
plans and processes that guide our lives. And data management we take for
granted is widely available to us all the time. I think we take this for
granted.
But Carl Sagan was concerned that we lived with technology
and science without understanding it. So right was he! How do we access
science? Use it? Understand it? Provide for its continuation and development in
our lives?
Education helps. For each generation to acquire the
knowledge and skills to maintain a future of science and technology. But do we
support education to do this? We think we do but hardly are we successful at
it.
Generational divides dot our social landscape constantly.
Those under 20 years of age stun those over 50 with their knowledge and capable
use of science. Workers at machines don’t wonder much beyond the technology
that guides their tools and machinery each day. How then do we invent new
technology and things? Who is there to note what needs to be improved? And by
that discover new and exciting processes and tools?
Invention and re-invention is the duty of the generation.
Are we preparing them to do this? Do we provide the math education? The logic
discipline? The intellectual stimulation that will drive each generation to
ponder, solve and excel?
That is what each company must do. Also each inventor. Then
too each family must do this for elemental reasons. And nations, governments,
charities…so many units of society perpetually re-inventing themselves.
Another anonymous quote found courtesy of the internet:
“In the end, only three things
matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go
of things not meant for you.”
What does this have to do with science and technology?
Plenty! What we do with our time is one thing. That activity keeps us
productive and employed. It helps us spend our time doing worthwhile things. It
brings pleasure to our lives as well.
But the last quote speaks of things still more basic. Who I
am is defined better by how much I loved, how well I lived without taxing
others and natural resources, and knowing when not to bother with things
unrelated to the self. The inner life is defined by much external.
That’s what it’s all about Alfie! Getting the clues, putting
them right, and using them well is the process. It depends heavily on how well
we do our functions daily and that relies on science and technology. Separate
and equal? Maybe. But certainly necessary to one another. And us.
March 25, 2014
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