More than we bargained for...

Okay...one of my soapboxes is that technology is changing us more than we can imagine. A key catalyst that started this line of reasoning within me was an amazing essay by Bill Joy, co-founder and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems, called Why The Future Doesn't Need Us. This was compounded by my own observations about how the cell phone and the internet were changing the dynamics of human interaction. My reflections led to a poem about the cell phone. I won't share the whole thing, but the following lines communicate a bit of my thinking...

Constant wireless communication
Merits quiet contemplation
Shallow words breed shallow minds
Which left unchecked yield shallow lives

We make things then they make us
All our tools will one day be
The hammers and the chisels
That give shape to you and me

The future’s born of our inventions
This despite our best intentions

So beware the innovation
For which the masses stand in line
Progress is a word
That takes a long time to define

I won't get started because once I start ranting I usually go on to long...but I will tell you that I think I'm right. And along the same lines...this just in - Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist.

Now stop reading blogs and go out and talk to someone face to face!