From that list I see only one thing as essentially futile, another one as a byproduct of a broken social model and another one as a heavy optimization that could be abandoned if necessary.
The other one, though, is among the top 5 inventions of mankind in my modest opinion, so abandoning it would be really foolish.
Of those four things, only internet has been a part of my normal life. I don't fly or have a passport even. Mobile phones are only a part of my life at my job, but I will never own one (though a friend of mine argues that if I use gizmo on my N800, I've broken that rule).
Perhaps jumping to certain social contexts without Internet but warm connections we would realize how disconnected were our connected lives. I'm asking about leaving the Internet behind not as a loss but as a progress, even as an evolution.
I have no plans to bring this any further from a mental exercise. :) It's just that I'm thinking these days that life-without-Internet is too undervalued by those that perhaps overvalue life-with-Internet, like ourselves.
I lost my domain name and I don't care. I don't read email anymore at home. I gave away my TV. If I don't feel like it, I don't answer the phone. I don't call back. The modern man. Homo Coniunctus Disconiunctus.
But yeah, a computer without Internet connection is not really a computer. I often wonder how I could enjoy them so much before I had a modem. I actually enjoyed them more back then, come to think about it.
I don't have a passport either, don't use phone to make more than 5 calls a month.
But Internet! Can't live without it, but agree with @mvo: I think I enjoyed using a computer more when there was no computer than I do now. Got to do something about it.
i could very easily live without my mobile. maybe even without the internet. maybe.
but i've had a passport since before i knew what a passport was.. couldn't live without that.. i think flights/passports are a bit different than mobiles/internet. i dont see them as 'futile'
The interesting thing is that you can't ask your (rethorical) question in the same way about inventions with also great social impact like the wheel: we (from our perspective, many years after the wheel's invention) don't see any dilemma between two things (to win something we must lose something). Will people in the future see a dilemma (shortly: SL vs RL)? Is the Internet different from the wheel?
@nanci I meant passports & flights in 'normal life' - which at least for me means for work. My last two trips with flight & passport took me both to London for barely 24h, and they were just like extensions of phone calls and the Internet, with almost no relation or impact with the local space. Travelling across borders as a discovery is no futile at all, sure.
@badosa yeah, sure. New technologies are only problematic to the first generations having to digest them, integrating them to normal life while previous technologies or routines change or disappear - like the mentalities behind them. I could write 'remember when the weel was not part of your normal life' - but then the exercise would be even more rethorical. ;)
15 comments so far
Can you imagine making a turning point in your life and leave these (otherwise futile) things behind?
2 years, 1 month ago by qgil
Internet is a tough one...
2 years, 1 month ago by tko
From that list I see only one thing as essentially futile, another one as a byproduct of a broken social model and another one as a heavy optimization that could be abandoned if necessary.
The other one, though, is among the top 5 inventions of mankind in my modest opinion, so abandoning it would be really foolish.
2 years, 1 month ago by xan
Of those four things, only internet has been a part of my normal life. I don't fly or have a passport even. Mobile phones are only a part of my life at my job, but I will never own one (though a friend of mine argues that if I use gizmo on my N800, I've broken that rule).
2 years, 1 month ago by zerojay
Perhaps jumping to certain social contexts without Internet but warm connections we would realize how disconnected were our connected lives. I'm asking about leaving the Internet behind not as a loss but as a progress, even as an evolution.
I have no plans to bring this any further from a mental exercise. :) It's just that I'm thinking these days that life-without-Internet is too undervalued by those that perhaps overvalue life-with-Internet, like ourselves.
2 years, 1 month ago by qgil
I lost my domain name and I don't care. I don't read email anymore at home. I gave away my TV. If I don't feel like it, I don't answer the phone. I don't call back. The modern man. Homo Coniunctus Disconiunctus.
2 years, 1 month ago by mvo
But yeah, a computer without Internet connection is not really a computer. I often wonder how I could enjoy them so much before I had a modem. I actually enjoyed them more back then, come to think about it.
2 years, 1 month ago by mvo
Dunno. You could say the same about news, telephone, trips to see people, ...
2 years, 1 month ago by tko
What'ya mean? Trips to see people without Internet are not really trips to see people? :)
2 years, 1 month ago by mvo
The paradox has been always there: the net connects as much as traps.
2 years, 1 month ago by qgil
Good points Quim. I have already been taking steps lately to minimize my internet (and even PC) time as much as is practical.
Now, to wean my kids...
2 years, 1 month ago by Texrat
I don't have a passport either, don't use phone to make more than 5 calls a month. But Internet! Can't live without it, but agree with @mvo: I think I enjoyed using a computer more when there was no computer than I do now. Got to do something about it.
2 years, 1 month ago by tabrez
i could very easily live without my mobile. maybe even without the internet. maybe.
but i've had a passport since before i knew what a passport was.. couldn't live without that.. i think flights/passports are a bit different than mobiles/internet. i dont see them as 'futile'
2 years, 1 month ago by nanci
The interesting thing is that you can't ask your (rethorical) question in the same way about inventions with also great social impact like the wheel: we (from our perspective, many years after the wheel's invention) don't see any dilemma between two things (to win something we must lose something). Will people in the future see a dilemma (shortly: SL vs RL)? Is the Internet different from the wheel?
2 years, 1 month ago by badosa
@nanci I meant passports & flights in 'normal life' - which at least for me means for work. My last two trips with flight & passport took me both to London for barely 24h, and they were just like extensions of phone calls and the Internet, with almost no relation or impact with the local space. Travelling across borders as a discovery is no futile at all, sure.
@badosa yeah, sure. New technologies are only problematic to the first generations having to digest them, integrating them to normal life while previous technologies or routines change or disappear - like the mentalities behind them. I could write 'remember when the weel was not part of your normal life' - but then the exercise would be even more rethorical. ;)
2 years, 1 month ago by qgil