Horses, Carburetors, and Phone Booths

You’re probably wondering where this odd title is going to take us. Well, here’s the thing: horses, carburetors and phone booths were all once ubiquitous, but now you have to know where to look for one.

Some wag has pointed out that in an earlier time, everybody had a horse, but only the rich had a car. Now everyone has a car, but only the rich have horses. While not absolutely true (I know many a modest income horse owner who lives on a pretty tight budget, mostly because of the horse) it nevertheless speaks to a dimension of “progress”.

There remain remote communities where telephone booths still exist because there is little or no cellphone reception. While carburetors are rarely, if ever, installed on modern automobiles, we still see them on lawnmowers and chainsaws.

And let’s say I wanted to find photographic film for a very old camera. Few photographic specialty stores still keep much stock, so if I had some odd size, I’d be out of luck. Oh, wait! Yes, of course, I could find something on the internet.

Some would see all such changes as progress, some would growl that all such changes are bad for us, but most of us just shrug and move on. The fact that you are reading this on a screen of some sort suggests that you are comfortable with change.

But there is a larger issue, which is that technological and societal change are cumulative. They affect us not only singly but also as an ecosystem. So while being able to find a photographic film vendor on Google is so very convenient, it’s also kind of creepy that for the next week Google will continue to serve up adverts for all things photographic. And while I love my happy, chirpy Google Home, I’m uncomfortably aware that when she is not being super-cute-friendly-helpful, she’s sitting quietly on the kitchen counter, listening and phoning home to Mountain View.

Is “progress” good or bad? I think that in large part that depends on how and why you respond to it. Accepted mindlessly, “progress” may lead us to an Orwellian dystopia, but if enough of us can exercise some judgment in what we accept and what we reject, “progress” may in fact be progress.

And are Norm’s Notes “progress”? Gutenberg would probably roll in his grave, but I hope he’d read them.