Carroll County Times Articles
Everyday Technology
Here to Help, Not Intimidate, Us
by Wade Johansen – December 10, 2006
A woman asked me the other day how I learned my craft of computer network engineering. She said she felt "dumb" about how little she knew about how computers worked. For a fleeting moment I had an answer that I thought would suffice, but then I stopped to think about it and hesitated to answer at all. "The truth," I told her, "is I probably don't really know that much myself. At best, it's an educated guess!" One thing I was sure of – I felt her pain.
There is a certain anxiety that goes along with feeling left out of the loop when it comes to things we don't fully understand. Because technology is increasingly becoming a large part of our daily lives, we sometimes feel either frustrated or amazed by it. What truly amazes me about technology in our lives is how little thought we actually give to it. We take for granted that it will do what it is supposed to do, without thinking through how it is doing it. It sometimes seems incomprehensible in its nature, and therefore intimidating.
As others, I value my technically driven creature comforts as much as anyone else. However, my curiosity about how things are interconnected and how the parts interact drove my quest for technical knowledge. This, and a desire to better orchestrate my life by putting together all the processes, drives me to learn more everyday.
Maybe it's my love of creature comforts like TV and a microwave oven and the ease by which I can plop down on the sofa at the end of the day to relax with my family, that I simply forget how much engineering it took to make the TV, oven and sofa itself. Some days of course, I could do without any of it, as it also can frustrate me to no end when the satellite dish stops working or the internet line to my house goes down.
Granted, if we gave thought to every way technology affected us, we simply would be so bogged down in thought we'd have little time to think of anything else. And so most of us go along in our daily routines giving little thought as to how much technology manages nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
From the extremely complex circuitry that comprises our alarm clock that we so much like to despise in the morning, to the equally complex circuitry that makes up the coffee machine that makes our morning cup of java (amazingly doing so while we are sleeping), it's surprising that we could have ever lived without such conveniences. Our water is heated by circuitry design, and through means of electric grids or natural gas delivery methods, is sent to us across an astonishingly complex network of meshed wires and piping straight to our shower. This, to me, is quite literally unimaginable how it all really works. The method of how it is regulated to provide us with efficient energy, and of course a nice warm shower in the morning, doesn't do much to make us marvel at how it happens, until of course it stops working. It's not surprising how much is taken for granted until the power goes out.
Take going to work, for example. We are driving extremely complex machines, and navigating our way using sophisticated instrumentation, all put into motion by simply pressing a pedal and turning a wheel. We find our way often enough now by using satellite technologies, which didn't exist a few short years ago. We are regulated and guided on our path by traffic lights that are linked to complex timing mechanisms and attached to grid network computers, that are monitored by banks of other computers, which are then attached to the Internet, from which is broadcast to us up-to-the-minute live traffic information across our radios.
From the food we consume which is kept in refrigeration, to the clothes that we wear, almost everything is provided to us through complex manufacturing processes. All of which, by the way, is engineered! Considering all these processes that must be put into place to develop nearly everything we touch, it is amazing how technology is used to control nearly every aspect of our lives.
Yet, in considering the complexity of all this technological wizardry, none of it comes close to equaling the engineering process that allows our minds to function. We must at least be smarter than our machines, because without us, they would not exist.
From the computer which helped me record this article, to the email that allowed me to transfer it across the Internet, to the press that was used to print it, extremely fascinating and complex technology was put into play. However, each step of that process is one we now take for granted. We no longer even try to comprehend it; we just use it, and count on it to be there as we need it. We will never be able to measure technology's value and impact, nor properly measure what we know of it.
All of this brings me to a point!
When I asked this woman what she did for a living, she said she was a stay at home mom with 3 kids. They were all so used to having "technology" with their Playstations, computers and other gadgets, that she felt inadequately prepared to guide them. Given the fact that I can barely manage to get my alarm clock turned off in the morning and get myself to the office, I felt humbled by the fact that she manages to maintain control of her own life, much less while managing the lives of three others, as well as her husband. Given the circumstances, I'd be at the opposite spectrum of feeling "dumb" in her world.
Maybe, every once in a while, she does what I like to do – just sit and ponder how marvelous it all is. The fact that I feel "dumb" about how it all works doesn't really feel so bad then, and as everyone else, I'm just glad when anything in life manages to work at all.
About the Author
Wade Johansen is owner of Couri Technology, and a member of the Carroll Technology Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating businesses, government and residents about technology issues. Questions are welcomed and may be addressed in future articles. Email advisors@carrolltechcouncil.org or go to www.carrolltechcouncil.org for a list of Advisor categories.
The viewpoints expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Carroll Technology Council.
