The Technology Python.

One thing has been apparent during the course of my (relatively short, so far!) lifetime. As each new gadget has come along, it has insinuated itself into the culture to such an extent that the mechanics of the culture have adjusted to make the gadget all but indispensable.

Gadgets cost money, and so the growth of personal and domestic technology has served to promote the power of the corporate world, and in so doing, created an ever-burgeoning imperative to live between the tram lines which it defines and controls. In short, it’s becoming ever more difficult to function outside the confines of a cultural norm based on money, short of becoming homeless or living the life of a hunter-gatherer in the wild.

This phenomenon reminds me of the Boa Constrictor, which gradually tightens its coils with each intake of the victim’s breath until there is no room left to exhale and the victim suffocates. I suppose that’s why I’m innately suspicious of new gadgets: I don’t just see the gadget, I see the tell-tale markings of a snake tightening around my chest. I still have to have at least some of them eventually, of course, because I’m not mentally equipped to be either homeless or a hunter-gatherer.