"Of course, that's just my opinion, and I may be full of shit"
- Dennis Miller -

Since this opinion was considered in great detail, it will be difficult to change my mind. However, it's not impossible. I am always open to reason. I welcome thoughtful, logical, response.

However, like a work of art, the value of technology is not so easily measured. Certainly the "Uni-bomber" was misguided, yet there may be value in the claim that unfettered advancement of technology is not always beneficial. Should the medical community stop at nothing? Should we throw together crappy computers that might zap us in an instant?

As a computer programmer, I find my self spending more and more time fixing broken tools (leaving time for nothing else) rather than using them to reach goals. It seems most often my goal is just to get the tools working. I am overwhelmed, and in great part this is a result of technological advancements which increase both learning and maintenance work loads.

On the other hand, I do not advocate an abandonment of our toys for a total return to nature. I love my shower, the ability to edit my writings (white-out is obsolete), my car, and a vacation in St. Lucia. I used to love the NBA on TNT, until they went on strike!

As I see it, the problem is twofold: quantity and quality. First, each new technological feature increases the number of possible conflicts with other items increases. Second, once a new item is added, it increases your maintenance load.

My current thought is that technological advancement does not need to be consciously slowed down. Instead we must be more selective in our adoption of individual technological items. Choose fewer items of better quality, simultaneously reducing conflicts and maintenance load.

Perhaps by reducing our own intake, through personal quotas, we can restore our  lives to some sort of order which will yield both accomplishment and enjoyment.

It is my opinion that everyone needs to consider this issue every time they consider adding anything new to their life. This means from buying a new glass for the kitchen cabinet, to a new VCR in the living room; from adding a third "open MRI machine" in the fifth hospital, to to buying the most expensive sneakers.

Without constant evaluation in this manor, we seem to naturally get caught up in the need for the biggest, fastest, latest, best thing, that more often adds less than it consumes.