iPhone you - phone?...

“Technology made large populations possible; large

populations…make technology indispensable.

- Joseph Krutch, writer, and critic

 of reductionist science

When I was a kid in West Virginia, the phone system was manned by operators. When making a call, you'd pick up the phone, and a live person would say, "Number please?" Our number was ‘7748.' I loved the sound of the operator’s voice.

When dial phones came, it was fantastic. You just picked the receiver up, dialed the number on a rotary pad, and you were off to the races. Next came touch pads, making calls even faster.

Somewhere in the early 1990s, portable bag phones appeared. You could carry the things in your car, plug them into the cigarette lighter and talk to people over the air. Molly and I wondered whether we should get one for her car. The accounting firm she worked for made a deal with a mobile carrier and got discount pricing. After deciding we might be able to afford it, we got one. The very day it was installed, there was a massive storm, and Molly had a flat tire on her thirty-mile drive home. She called me, and I came to get her. The world had flattened for us, and at that moment we understood the value a mobile phone system.

A lot of technology has changed since those days. Flip phones gave way to smart ones with alphanumeric keypads. With current technology, phones are used less for calling people than as cameras, text sender/receivers, data holders, movie and music players. They provide people who have them with access to an entire internet universe.

Tablets and computers have also become smaller and more powerful.

Over the years, I have become accustomed to and dependent upon rapidly growing and forward-looking technology. Until now.

In a couple of weeks, I’m going to England and Europe for a holiday. While there I will do a little work. Typically, before leaving, I make a complete backup of my base station computer to a portable hard drive and carry it with me. The unfettered use of technology has permitted me have a full-blown mobile office.  Lengthy flights provide quiet space. The laptop and backup drive hold every bit of electronic data I own, so if inspired, I can work on any project or find anything I have ever stored.

The other thing this portable technology has afforded is the ease with which I can write about the things I see. For nearly 25 years, I've sent these observations home in the form travelogues. I have loved doing them for two reasons. One is to share the ‘out of the ordinary’ things I experience and see. The other is to provide a record that reminds me of the life I have lived.

This trip, it will be a little different.  Things are not as easy as in the past – “…past…” meaning last fall. The world is changing, and of consequence, I will not take a computer or iPad on this adventure. I can bring them in the cabin to Europe, but there is a possibility I will not be able to carry them in my carryon on the way home. Bag checking computer and iPad is not an option, so I’ll leave them at home.

While inconvenient, I am looking forward to the adventure of getting along with less rather than more. I’ll take a Bluetooth keyboard and small stand for my smartphone, which will become my primary method of communication. I've loaded MSWord, PowerPoint, and Keynote (my Apple presentation program) so I can write and maybe do a little work on presentations. I haven’t sorted out how to send the travelogues or blogs yet. It may simply be that there will be neither during the days I’m gone.

In Europe, I'll get a sim card for my phone. These little chips provide ‘country local' telephone numbers and data plans. This means I'll be able to call friends who live in the countries as if they were local calls.  Using sim cards lowers phone charges to a fraction of US carriers.  The challenge is that I’ve never used one before so there will be a learning curve.

So much of the world is changing, and in many ways, we are propagating more and more fear as the few terrorize the many.  I understand the heightened security countries feel the need to put in place. I'm not complaining…just adjusting…

The future is calling us, as our technologies continue to enhance. There are also significant challenges to the ways we use them. We have a choice.  We can either embrace the changes and adapt what comes with them or turn our backs and be afraid. We can answer the phone or let it ring.

“Number please?…”

-ted