Comments on: Gadget Reductivism http://clicknoise.net/gadget-reductivism/ Musings about music, technology, mobility, and culture, by Jean Hebert. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:56:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Richard Smith http://clicknoise.net/gadget-reductivism/comment-page-1/#comment-87 Richard Smith Tue, 30 May 2006 05:31:40 +0000 http://clicknoise.net/gadget-reductivism/#comment-87 I can see a resistance movement to all this. The person who doesn't use ATMs (I know some). The person who just likes to keep things separate. Alternatively, you have the backup device. A tv sitcom from a long time ago featured two guys living in an apartment, one fastidious and the other slovenly. The fastidious guy, in one episode, puts everything into a daytimer (this was before palm pilots, but the analogy holds...). The other guy, in frustration, one day throws the daytimer out the window. The fastidious guy looks pained, and then pulls out his backup daytimer. "Get new backup daytimer..." he writes. Badump tsch. If something is really a companion technology (and Roman has a great little description of this, ranging from the here and now to the star trek vision) then it will contemplate its own demise and how to cushion you from that blow. If it didn't, it wouldn't be a good companion, then, would it. Our danger comes from committing to a premature technology. Like when I lost my Palm Pilot (original version!) on the train in Toronto station. Not backed up, not password protected. Bad Palm Pilot. You never warned me I was going to lose you! ...r I can see a resistance movement to all this. The person who doesn’t use ATMs (I know some). The person who just likes to keep things separate. Alternatively, you have the backup device.

A tv sitcom from a long time ago featured two guys living in an apartment, one fastidious and the other slovenly. The fastidious guy, in one episode, puts everything into a daytimer (this was before palm pilots, but the analogy holds…). The other guy, in frustration, one day throws the daytimer out the window. The fastidious guy looks pained, and then pulls out his backup daytimer. “Get new backup daytimer…” he writes. Badump tsch.

If something is really a companion technology (and Roman has a great little description of this, ranging from the here and now to the star trek vision) then it will contemplate its own demise and how to cushion you from that blow. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be a good companion, then, would it.

Our danger comes from committing to a premature technology. Like when I lost my Palm Pilot (original version!) on the train in Toronto station. Not backed up, not password protected. Bad Palm Pilot. You never warned me I was going to lose you!

…r

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