Almost everyone believes that technology has made life easier and more comfortable and that it has enabled us to perform tasks that we could not do otherwise. A list of the benefits of technology would be very long indeed. However, as with almost everything we human beings have created, technology has a downside. For openers, technology does not necessarily make life simpler; rather, it tends to m
ake life more complicated. Nowadays, for example, nearly every discussion of the "wonderful power of technology to enrich our lives" mentions the cell phone. Certainly, the instant communication brought about by the telephone has been a boon. It was originally a rather simple device that anyone could learn to use in a matter of minutes, and we soon began using phones to make and receive phone calls, usually about matters of some consequence. Recently, however, we have enabled these devices to perform a ridiculous number of irrelevant functions. One needs a thirty-page booklet to learn how to use them. Anyone who enters a phone store today seeking a phone that simply sends and receives phone calls is likely to be looked upon as a refugee from the Dark Ages – or from another planet. Furthermore, we have millions of people walking about or driving their cars while talking on cell phones, usually discussing matters of no importance whatsover. If an alien civilization were to tap into our phone lines, its inhabitants would think that everyone on our planet was insane, and they wouldn't be far from wrong. In a sane world, would almost all of its inhabitants carry complex, multifunction gadgets that are used primarily to engage in trivial chatter – and use them in ways that are socially annoying and unsafe?
