🚀 go-pugleaf

Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> writes:

> Michael Black <mbl...@pubnix.net> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 27 Jun 2018, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>> 
>>> Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
>> 
>> When they had the SF Worldcon here in 2009, I wrote somewehre about
>> it.  It included something like "the future is better than
>> anticipated, but not nearly as good".  I should look up the exact
>> quote.  IN some ways anticipating the future was exciting, living
>> it is less so, even if we have so much more gadgetry than anyone
>> imagined.

New Year's day, 1949.  Did Dick have his radio watch by then?

    http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/temp/tracy.jpg
 
> When you imagine it you swoon over all the great stuff the future
> will bring, but tend to ignore the problems. Few imagining todays
> "social media" probably considered the privacy problems ant the
> proliferation of advertising.

Gee, I dunno.  Swoon?  I got a computer as soon as I could afford one,
actually by trading fancy metalwork for an obsolete one because fancy
metalwork isn't, in my neck of the woods, a way to get heaps of cash.
Oh, and a modem pretty early on, too.  And Wikipedia is just great for
subjects that nobody's having bunfight or in a personal snit over.

But all the new gadgets?  Most of them leave me cold. After every
browser upgrade (or Emacs upgrade, for that matter) I spend a lot of
time figuring out how to disable all the new features.  I was getting
pretty good with a 35mm SLR but now I'm reduced to the equivalent of
ny 1955 Brownie Hawkeye or else a pricey camera that takes 10 minutes
and good eyesight just to set up all the options for a shot.

I guess I should get a cell phone pretty soon.  Old guy, y'know, can
no longer be sure of walking home from anywhere in any weather and all
the pay phones are gone.  Digital house?  Um, will it chuck another
bolt of wood into the kitchen range or replace the leathers in my hand
pump when needed?  My electric toaster is 115 years old, gets used
daily in summer.  Don't think I need a digital one.


-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada