In a “recent discussion”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/stick_figure/316768.html with “Laura”:http://livejounal.com/users/stick_figure/ regarding the possibility of living in a commune or “intentional community”, the concept of technology and it’s role in life has risen.
I agree with Laura whole heartedly. A “self-sufficient community is not only difficult, it’s, technically speaking, stupid”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/stick_figure/316768.html?thread=406880#t406880. You would have to be an incredibly large community (say, a nation) in order to have enough people and resources to afford yourself all of the finer points of living. Technology is, simultaneously, the joy and sorrow of life as I know it.
She brought up knitting as an example, and I’ll confirm that. Jess crochets. She does a great job. But it isn’t possible for her to keep up with mass production. Case in point: she’s currently crocheting a very large blanket as a commissioned work for some friends. I can’t even begin to count the number of rolls of yarn she’s used, stitches she’s made, or hours she’s spent working on it. In the end, she makes a few bucks. But, in truth, it doesn’t even amount to minimum wage for the work she’s put in. And, the blanket that will be received won’t keep the owners of it any warmer than a blanket bought off the shelf. Additionally, her blanket will have small defects and imperfections made by human hands that wouldn’t be present in a blanket produced by a machine. Arguably, the blanket produced by the machine is superior in quality to hers, at a fraction of the time and cost, when mass produced. Of course, she enjoys doing it, so making money isn’t the point. However, were she to try to earn a living this way, it would be quite difficult to compete with modern machines. I would even venture to say it would be impossible to do so.
The same situation applies to almost anything. Take web design for example. A customer can pay me $150/hr to design their content and website. Or, they can buy a copy of Microsoft FrontPage, use a built in template, enter the data themselves, and in nor more than a day or so, have a website at a fraction of the cost. I’m fortunate, at this point anyway, that computers are not entirely capable of taking over my job. And, when they are, I intend to be one of the people making the computers doing the take over. But it’s getting to that point. Eventually, no one will bother creating websites by hand, unless they do it for enjoyment alone, because technology will do it quicker, better, and at a fraction of the cost.
Even in her craft, technology rears it’s ugly head. There are millions of people who see doctors every month across this country. They are prescribed medicine. They obtain those prescriptions. They take their medicine and feel better. Insurance pays for it. Everyone wins. Except, sometimes, those very people relying on this technology. Imagine an individual with recurring headaches. He sees his doctor, gets medicine, and feels better when he takes it, at the expense of a little cash and various undetermined and uncontrollable side-effects. On the other hand, a few visits to your practice might actually *cure* the situation instead of covering it up with medication. Yet, technology and convenience provides the means for people to obtain their solution the “wrong” way.
In all of these cases, technology, in different ways, has all but taken over the need for skill, labor, and craftsmanship. Sure, there are still people that want hand-stitched blankets. And there are people who know the value of a custom designed website. And there are patients who know that finding the root of their problems and curing that is a better solution than covering it up with medication. But technology, convenience, and mass production makes it almost impossible for the common man to even consider any other angle of approach.
Yet, on the same token, without “technology” Jess’ hobby, my trade, and your practice would all be non-existent. Without technology, we’d still be smashing rocks against unknown fruit found on the forest floor in hopes that it held something good to eat, and not something that was going to make us sick. We wouldn’t have computers to make websites on, crochet needles and rolls of yarn, or acupuncture needles and years and years of botanical research.
It’s a double edged sword. The Wal-Marts of the world are slowly making mass production the only option. Photography used to be a *very* manual practice. Every exposure was calculated using mathematics and knowledge. Every negative was developed by hand. Every print was manually exposed and corrected. It was a true art. Today’s camera’s are fully automatic. Film is available for less than $2 a roll. Wal-Mart will develop your negatives and hand you prints for $6 in less than an hour. And the world of digital cameras is even taking some of that away. I used to develop and print all of my own film. Digital photography was not even a consideration. My estimates found that, not counting the cost of film and it’s development, each good 8″x10″ print cost me about $7 and 2 hours of time. And, when I wanted another copy of that same print, the costs in time and money didn’t go down much. Slowly but surely, I got into digital photography. Now, the first 8″x10″ print I make costs me $2 and about 30 minutes of time. Each additional print costs another $2 and no time at all. And, again, this isn’t accounting for the cost or time involved with preparing the film before it can be printed.
I’m proud that I can practice photography in the old-fashioned way. I’m glad that I know what is involved with every step of the process. I’d even consider doing it again, just for fun, and nostalgia, and control. But on a regular basis, I’m very grateful for technology.
Technology is the new “God”. Technology giveth, and technology taketh away. All we have to do is keep up.
