Born in the Shadow of the Computer (Part 3)

motherboard (Photo credit: fsse8info)

       In the guts of the computer when you open it it you'll see intricate boards with wires, circuits, and all sorts of little thingie doodads that the non-technical mind like I have does not comprehend too well.  What I do see is a metaphor for life.  Those circuits with all of the parallels and intersections all working together to serve my needs are like the history of where I've been, who I am now, and where I am going in the days and years ahead.  We are all like circuits on the great motherboard of existence.

        And this preceding paragraph exhibits why a post that was intended to be a one installment of biding time has turned into part three and will continue on into May since my computer problems persist and I don't know what I'm doing and I don't have the money at the present time to invest in professional computer repairs.  Add to that, I'm a bit stubborn sometimes.   I'm going to fix this.

        But not today I suppose.  I won't even finish this story today.  Consider this a sort of intermission, or a prelude perhaps to the story to come.  This is not even what I'd planned on writing today, but life is often like that as well isn't it?  We intend in going one direction and then get distracted to go another route.

        One story leads to another and that is the story of life--yours, mine, ours, and everyone who was and will be.  Our stories sometimes intersect or often run in parallel paths.  Here in this cyberspace world we find others we would have more than likely never encountered in the local world of where we typically are.  It's kind of wonderful really, but that does not discount the life that is ours immediate to the senses.

        I am biding time, sure, but don't we all in many ways.  We are all living in the shadow of the computer.  Sometimes a curse, sometimes a blessing--there is no escaping the computers that are all around us and essentially run our lives.  How did we get here?

         If all goes like I hope, next week's post will be my introduction to my A to Z Challenge theme.  Then during the month of April I will hopefully post for 26 days upon that stated theme.  At least that is my intent.

         We know how intents can go.  And that is where this story is going.  In May I intend to pick up again on my story of being Born in the Shadow of the Computer as I look at the ironies of my encounter with computers in the 1990's.  One simple start of a story a couple posts ago becomes three posts and in turn becomes who knows how many more.  The story will probably not end for me until my life ends.   The computers are here to stay.  At least for a while.


     

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• Born in the Shadow of the Computer (Part One)
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Born in the Shadow of the Computer (Part One)

"Technology has exceeded our humanity" (Photo credit: Toban B.)

         When I was sat down in front of the Wang computer,  my mind became befuddled.   What was presented as an opportunity was an intimidation that I backed away from.  Now I don't even recall why I was given this opportunity.  It was like the memory of a bad experience that had been erased from my mind.

           This was when I was in high school, about 1968, and it had something to do with Spanish class.  At least this is the class I relate this to.  A hand picked group of promising students was sent to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to learn this new computer technology.  Obviously I was the wrong choice.  I learned nothing and remember nothing.

           So goes the story of my life with computers. The technology loomed large on the horizon casting a shadow over some of us while shining brightly for others.  Though I liked the science fiction nature of it all, the reality merely left me confused.  I've never been too very good with technical or mechanical things.

           The computers continued to pervade every aspect of life as I sometimes felt more and more left behind.   The computer age had already begun by the time I was born in 1951 and yet from the standpoint of those machines I was an anachronistic holdover from another time.  I was not the only one.  There were many of us.  I would like to have been in mental sync with the technology, but my mind refused to cooperate.  Or perhaps I was too stubborn to learn.

         And so it went for the next twenty years, me out of sync with the encroaching new world of computing and computers everywhere, all around me.  I was using them and never thought about how pervasive computers were in every aspect of my life.   Oblivious to the reality, but knowing that the societal evolution was happening with or without me.   I was not part of the equation.

         Then at the end of the 80's, the era of MTV and techno music that signaled the take-over of modern culture by computers, I emerged into this silicon world like a new born baby.

(Due to current computer problems this will be continued...)

         Have you had difficulty adjusting to modern technology?   Are computers more of a bane or a blessing to you?    How have computers directly affected your life?

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