Thursday, January 28, 2016

Daily Prompt: Life After Blogs

The folks over at WordPress have a Daily Prompt, and this one really caught my interest. What would life be like without computers? While I'm not old enough to remember life before computers were invented (the first machine that could be considered a computer was invented in 1822), I am old enough to remember life before computers became common place in every home. and restaurant and shopping mall and...

First, a little of my history with computers:

When I started college, the university had only what would now be thought of as very, very old Apple computers on campus, so I'm very comfortable with Apple and Macs.


My parents bought their the first computer when I was in high school. I think it was a Texas Instruments machine, and I taught myself some very basic coding in Basic on it.


The first computer I purchased myself was a Hewlett Packard desktop with a screen that was heavier than the tower housing the guts. At the time, my brother was working for HP, so it made a lot of sense to support a company that was making it possible for him support his family. Since then, I've purchased many computers and laptops, the latest is an iMac with a bigger screen than the T.V. I grew up watching. How crazy is that?


I think we would all adapt quickly to a life without computers. Humans are interesting creatures. We are one of the few species on this planet that bend our environment to fit what we think we need instead of adapting to our environment, though not all of us. Looking at native communities in third-world countries, we see that life without computers is completely possible (and was for most of the history of this little, blue ball winging through the cosmos). The U.S. Post Office would probably cheer the loudest as people would need their services for more than junk mail again. I don't know that life would become simpler or slower. We would find other ways of doing the things that computers do for us. Handwriting would suddenly re-emerge as a vital skill taught in schools again. Learning to compute (ha!) complex equations in our heads and on paper would catch on again. And you would probably long for your old analog T.V. and phonograph again. Information and news would come more from your neighbors, friends, and family than from your phone. You might actually get to know your neighbors. A strange concept these days.

I don't think it would be the end of the world. In fact, it might be kind of nice...

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Random labels

30-day challenge 9-11 about me acapella accidents amazing America Anamaniacs animals animation anniversaries April Fool's Day Arizona art astronomy babies baking ballet ballooning baseball beaches Beatles Beethoven Belgium birthdays blogging boat ride Book of Mormon reading books bread cabin California camp camping canning car carrots castles Cedar City changes children chocolate bunnies Christmas church civics clouds college construction contests cookies cooking coyote gulch daily prompt daisies date night dealing with youth death December Despicable Me dining disater preparedness discovery Disney Disney World Disneyland dog Drama Queen ducks Easter education Elder Bednar empty-nesting engagements Escalante extended family fall family vacations fashion Father's Day FHE fishing flowers food foreign freedom friends frustration Game Boy gardening General Conference genius children giveaway glasses gospel truths government graduations Grand Canyon grief hair Halloween Handel happiness health hiking Hilary Weeks holiday holidays home decor home improvements honors hospitals HTML classes humor illness injuries iPod Isle of Mull Jim Tomlinson July 4th jury duty just for fun kids' stuff Lagoon Lawyer-in-the-Family Lawyer-in-the-Works leaves Life of Christ light lights London love love love Mac Man in Plays Manito Gardens memorial Memorial Day Messiah minions missions MJ Structural Engineers morning Most Happy Girl Mother's Day mothers mountains movies moving Mr. Director Mr. Perfect Muppets music nature New Beginnings normal life O.K.Go ocean opera outdoors patriotic Percy and Harry photography piano piano guys pie pink pirates plants playing with Photoshop politics poppies portraits Psycho Wunderhund pumpkins quote of the day reading red remembering resting roller skating roses RSE San Antonio school Scotland seasons Shakespeare shopping singing skies smoke in the air Sondre Lerche space Spokane spring Stacey Kent standing stones Star Wars storms sun sunrise Super Teacher Woman SUU symphony teaching technology television Temple Square temples Thanksgiving theatre toddlers travel trees uinta mountains University of Utah USF Utah Utah Jazz Utah Symphony Valentines Day Veggie Tales voting Wasatch Front water weather web design wedding weddings wordless wednesday work world trade center writing yard work Young Womens Youth Conference YouTube YW camp