A Warning to the Curious.

Much musing tonight on the nature of singularity and the role of the computer. Imagine this:

For thirty years you’ve been working life out for yourself, and in so doing you’ve been moving further and further away from the received spectrum of opinions, attitudes and expectations. You’ve stepped outside the tram lines between which the vast majority of people walk, and so you’re no longer on a wavelength with the vast majority of people. What’s more, you’re the sort of person who is intolerant of superficial associations; it’s in your nature to need more than that; you need connection. The result is that the number of close associations you’re able to make with people in your physical orbit dries to a trickle.

But rescue is at hand in the form of the internet, because it extends your orbit to one of global dimensions. There are six billion people out there, so there must be a few with whom you can establish connections. And so there are, and connections are established. The problem is that they’re only accessible via the worldwide web, so what happens if your computer breaks down or the internet connection fails – even for a day? What do you do then, especially if the TV and other media offer nothing because they’re locked between the tram lines too, if you’ve become intolerant of reading because it tires you quickly for some reason, and if you don’t collect stamps or build model aircraft? Stew in your own juice? Get locked into solitary confinement without even a baseball to bounce and catch?

It seems that way, and it’s why computers scare me witless.

The post title is taken from an MR James story which has nothing to do with computers or being alienated, but it seemed appropriate.