Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Computer Environment Changing Faster Than Nature

Remember the double floppy disk drives and five and a quarter inch floppy disks? In 1981 there were no hard drives and internet. Now 25 years later the changes are so rapid it is hard to keep up. Even Bill Gates decided to get off the software treadmill and pursue humanitarian causes. Now we have RSS feedburners, Web Logs (Blogs), iPods, PlayStations and Skype global computer telephone calling. We can now TiVo our WebTV while simultaneously watching multiple 24-hour news channels. We can sit at our desks and 'Google' search information on any topic and get tons of instant information that just a few years ago took weeks, months or years to accumulate. Whew.

We are getting accustomed to people seemingly walking around talking to themselves thanks to the Blue Tooth and Blackberries can keep you wired to emails and websites around the clock. Could the Borg from Star Trek be far behind? So it amazes us when one of our environmental colleagues talks about energy conservation while using every gadget imaginable at home and in the office. Americans are gadget crazed and cannot get enough. Our world has become virtual and our children no longer play outside. This virtual world has removed us from Mother Nature but has it made us better people?

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