September 5, 2012: Post 600 (2012 Day 249)

September 5, 2012

Daily Comment

From a guy who has mostly made his living as an adult working with some aspect of high technology, I am beginning to wonder about its actual value, about its place in my life.

It seems that the benefits may not outweigh the costs.

A few days ago a friend was rhapsodizing about the advanced technology available to horse race gamblers. Apparently, someone can now watch any race that's been covered by OTB in New York, current or past. Apparently, it is a capability that isn't available for any other sport.

Me? I'm thinking, "So what?"

Another friend was complaining about the degree of access his multiple email addresses and cell phones gave people and businesses, and how hard it had become to maintain and keep up with it all. When I suggested this was a choice, he responded that it was imperative to his job and his social life. Progress? He has, for the convenience of these communications, lost a lot of control of his free time.

I'm less and less thrilled by technical gadgets. In the past, I was an early adopter, a consumer who researched everything, trying to get the best, or, at least, the best value in new, "wee-doggies" technology. Lately, since trying to limit my consumer footprint, I often feel a little oppressed by the technology of computers, because of the demands made by ownership. I did buy a new digital camera recently - but in four weeks, I'm less than half-way through the book I bought to understand how to use it, and I'm not anxious to get back to where I left off there. In fact, I'm using the camera much less than I intended, because its complexities (that is, the things that make it technologically advanced over simpler digital point-and-shoot cameras that seem to use technology increase ease-of-use) are so overwhelming, and so many of them don't seem to fit my needs.

It is hard to argue with the good stuff the internet makes possible - the easy access and proliferation of culture; all the books and music and films you can get with a few clicks. Unfortunately, with enhanced access and ease of use, come mitigating problems: We spend too much time seeking new stimuli, wasting a lot of that resource on so many things that we didn't miss (or want) before they were so readily acceessible; and we also suffer content modified, filtered, reduced and often dumbed-down to work well with the new technology.

A good example of this is the coming of digital music, the advent of the CD, which eventually all but replaced every other music delivery system (LPs, cassettes). The problem was that vinyl records were difficult to reproduce cheaply, fragile, took up too much space, and required expensive hardware for quality playback, and even then, record wear and use degraded the listening experience. The CD solved all of those problems to a degree. However, the human ear does not hear and process sound waves digitally, so, while a CD does not have the same audible distortions as an LP, it introduces new distortions, often so subtle as to be unidentifiable, that makes the reproduction, at least in some ways, sound less realistic than the LP's old, flawed, but more realistic reproduction. CDs are less musical, less able to convey some low-level detail, a natural soundfield, real (as opposed to 'measured')dynamic range - despite having measurably less distortion than LPs, and without their pops and ticks and other distractions (higher background noise, for instance).

And, as the advanced technology is adopted, and supplants the older technology, something very valuable is lost. Something that may, in fact, be more valuable than the convenience (and profitability) of the new technology. Such, I think, is the case with most of today's consumer technology (see: microwave ovens).

The self-referential aspect, like social networks and computer simulation technology, cell phones and robots - seem to substitute one kind of 'labor' for another. We replace some kinds of drudgery with a different kind. Although calculators are accurate, and enable people with limited math skills to do accurate calculations, the result is that most people can no longer do simple math (that's what caculators are for, right?) and a certain way of thinking, of problem-solving, is lost.

The changes in the way we communicate, the changes in what we now do for work and leisure, seem to have put up new barriers between people, new barriers replacing the old barriers of time and distance.

Instant access means reducing conversations to smaller pieces, not all of which are well-communicated because of the new barrier of anonymity, lack of expression and tone of voice. So a lot more explanation is required, which are also burdened with the expressive limitations, and we have a death-spiral of interpersonal communication. To me, this renders Facebook, and even this blog, as nothing more than a medium for personal advertisement in the manner we have learned from corporate advertising. And very awkward tools for dialog. Less personal, but more convenient.

I think that's a step back from face-to-face conversations, myself. It certainly doesn't make for the same ease, or, for that matter, the same human bonding that happens when real communication takes place.

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Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:        205.8 lbs 
Yesterday's Weight:    207.6 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:     - 1.8 lbs

Year 2012 daily weight from December 31, 2011.

Diet Comment

Slowly coming down off Labor Day weekend's weight gain.

Food Log

Breakfast
Chia gel.

Lunch

Scrambled eggs with spinach, onions and peppers, and a cocoa-kale protein shake (almond milk, whey protein (36g protein), kale, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, stevia-erithrytol blend). It really does taste a lot better than it looks.

Dinner
Baby carrots with home-made spicy mayonnaise and beef jerky (too tired to cook).

Liquid Intake
    Coffee:  22 oz,  Water: 94+ oz.

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