Stuart’s Thoughts 9/15/2017

The Downside of Progress

The word progress is a word that can mean different things to different people but generally it implies a positive concept of moving forward toward a goal or objective.  While progress in certain situations is clearly undesirable, e.g., progressive destruction, it is more frequently considered desirable and basically suggests success in whatever is referred to.  During the early years of our lives it often characterizes learning, learning to walk, learning to talk, learning to interact appropriately with others and learning the basic skills needed to succeed in life.  We need to be able to read, to write and to acquire a broad range of academic knowledge.  All of this progress is desirable and, in fact, necessary in order to meet the challenges of life ahead of us.  There are few, if any, downsides to progress in this sense.

However, it’s an easy matter to recognize obvious downsides to certain other forms of progress.  The most obvious might be progress in the development of weapons.  Guns and other weapons have played a key role in the survival of individuals as well as societies and entire nations. Indeed, the United States  would likely not exist today if the colonists did not have weapons used in their fight for independence and human freedom my have been overrun by tyranny on numerous occasions if it were not for effective weapons used in self defense. On the other hand guns have also been used extensively for evil purposes such as in committing crimes and have often been the tools used in the killing, intentional or accidental, of many innocent victims.  Progress in developing the atomic bomb allowed the U.S. to bring a rapid close to World War II, saving countless lives of U.S. servicemen.  However, a very sad downside of this accomplishment was the deaths of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians and the downside continues today as more and more  rogue leaders in nations like North Korea and Iran develop nuclear arsenals.

Rather than focusing on the obvious examples such as progress in the development of weapons or the development of new drugs to treat disease which, by the way, all have side effects ranging from mild to severe and even life threatening,  I’ll take a more light-hearted look at some of the more recent creations of humans that have come about in my own lifetime and hopefully have a chuckle or two as we think of some of the associated downsides.

The base period that I have selected is my recollection of that wonderful decade following World war II and lasting up through the mid 1950s of my high school years and into my early years in college at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  Life in the 1950s to a teenager, having grown up in a small western NY town, seemed to just be all good.  The mood of the country was great and certainly the best that I have known in my 80+ years and it was especially in marked contrast to those dark times of the war years.  We were experiencing the fabulous post-war boom.  My little 1952 Willys 2-door was a focus in my life and the envy of many of my classmates.  Never more so then the time I set some sort of unofficial school record by managing to cram 12 girls into that little two door for a ride around town.  Fortunately, I also had some very serious lessons on auto safety and, aside from that one rather foolish episode, I took driving very seriously and avoided having any serious accidents and never was involved in harming anyone.  Certainly the automobile has been one of the most important inventions but we are all too aware of its very serious downside.  Automobile accidents are a leading cause of death in the U.S., particularly among the young.

But what about those more light-hearted examples that I referred to.  In the early 50s we had neither a TV, a computer of any sort and certainly not a cell phone.  Television was in its infancy while the only computers in existence were enormous behemoths that filled entire buildings and a curiosity that few people had even seen.  Cars had no GPS or complicated radios such as those today that require a Ph.D. in electrical engineering to operate.  We did have a car radio in those days but it only had two knobs that most everyone could manage, one to turn the radio on and adjust the volume and a second to turn the dial to find a station. There is no need for me to dwell on the benefits of those other stars of human progress, the TV, the personal computer, the cell phone and the auto GPS accessory.  These are thoroughly familiar to all under the age of 70, especially my grandchildren  However, I would like to briefly describe my personal opinions of what I consider to be some of the downsides of these marvelous inventions.

Watching TV consumes nearly a third of the average adult’s waking hours.  Given the fact that time is our most valuable asset, that sees a bit too much.  While there is a fair amount of educational value to many TV programs, that is unlikely the content that the average person focuses on.  I personally have the bad habit of watching entirely too much sports.  Others seem to be addicted to the unending 24 hour news cycles while situation comedies “reality TV” and other mindless zero content shows waste away the lives of far too many.  Higher level viewing can be had on the programming of The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and the like but that too can be overdone. It’s sad to say that kids today spend entirely too much time watching TV shows with little or no intellectual content and, in particular, wasting hours playing TV or computer-based games when they could be fostering their creativity in more socially interactive ways with peers- Progress Downside.

While personal computers have added immense value to our lives in many ways, far too much time is wasted by people, particularly young people, playing computer games and participating in the various forms of social media available.  Rather than fostering friendships directly, desperately searching electronically for meaningful relationships has led to a number of undesirable consequences.  Too many young people have been led astray by an anonymous  face on a computer screen. - Progress Downside.

The other day, I was delivering a lab sample to a medical lab for my wife but the lab technician was unable to find the Dr’s order in her computer system.  When she wasn’t able to connect to a live body at the Dr’s office to request the needed input, I suggested that I simply walk across the street to the Dr’s office and hand carry a copy back to her.  When I reported the problem to the nurse at the Dr’s office she checked her computer and said that the order was, in fact, in the system.  Nevertheless, I insisted on the sure-fire, old-fashion, resolution to this computer-age issue and solved the problem by hand delivering the order to the lab - Progress Downside deflected.

I have to admit that the cell-phone is my #1 target for pointing out Progress Downsides.  While I recognize how great it is to have a phone available in case of an emergency, being stranded somewhere or simply for rapid communication,  such uses probably account for only about 1% of all cell phone hours utilized today.  A great deal of cell phone use is, in my opinion, largely unnecessary - social contacts, idle chit chat, and especially avoiding personal contact.  Even though family pressure has required me to own a cell phone, I use it very little and only when forced to.  I don’t enjoy sitting in a room with a half-dozen others all of whom are peering into their hands at a little rectangular gadget.  I recently  observed a group of meeting attendees in the lobby at NC State during a session break.  Rather than meeting others and talking among themselves as was the usual meeting break activity before cell phones, most were slinking off to some secluded corner to peer into their hands.  Of course, I had no idea what any of them were doing, some of which may have been very important business but too many times when I’ve caught a glimpse of phone screens, attention was being directed at what appeared to be some kind of game - a very sad Progress Downside.

Finally, I feel a strong need to vent on the downside of the infamous auto GPS.  Why do we feel compelled to enter the destination into the GPS when we are just going around to corner for a loaf of bread.  What happened to man’s pioneering spirit that made him enjoy the challenge of finding his own way or at least plotting his route with primitive road maps?  These GPS gadgets are not as smart as we are led to believe.  In fact, in my opinion, they are dumb, no, I take that back, they are stupid.  Take for instance the time we were in the small town of Valle Crucis, NC and I chose “take me home” from the GPS menu in my car. After wandering around in the mountains for over an hour following its directions, the stupid thing had led me in a circle right back to Valle Crucis. Another time the devilish devise took me from rural Massachusetts into the heart of Boston when I really wanted to avoid the city altogether and take the easy route home.  That episode cost me a good extra hour of travel time - Progress Downside.

In closing, I want to say that I hope I haven’t offended anyone who is a true lover of these wonderful gadgets.  Remember the opinions above are my personal thoughts and I realize that, for the most part, they run counter to popular opinion. I suspect that most would consider me to be stuck in the past with an irrational dislike of modern technology but I have to say that’s not entirely true.  I mostly hate to see capable human beings subordinate their capabilities and independence to non-human gadgets.  The long term consequences of such a mindset might be catastrophic.  I often think of the young cashier I encountered who could only return the proper change to the customer when the sum appeared on the register screen. When the system went down she was totally incapable of completing even the simplest sale.  Are we not teaching students to calculate such an everyday task in their heads?  What other skills are we humans being robed of by the electronic gadgets of today and how far will this go in the future when robots are everywhere?  Might this loom as the biggest Progress Downside of them all?