http://statenews.com What would you do if technology ceased to exist? It seems like every day there’s a new cell phone or laptop being advertised during the commercial breaks of my favorite TV programs. Technology is growing faster than some of us can learn how to use it. en-us Foundry4 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:28:13 -0400 Fri, 16 May 2008 09:56:55 -0400 webmaster@statenews.com http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16953/view Do we rely too much on the use of electricity? Too much on running water or indoor plumbing? Technology naturally advances, for the better of society. Your premise is wrong. Like anything new, there will be those who abuse it, and those who let their lives become consumed by it. But eventually every technology will become a commodity, that is naturally expected just like you expect to have available electricity and running water. I don’t see a problem with embracing those things that make our lives easier or more interesting to us. Those things we find new and exciting can and should be commonplace to future generations, as they find and explore even more things! Tue, 13 May 2008 20:26:37 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16953/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16961/view Is it a requirement at the SN that all writers can only use one-sentence paragraphs? Wed, 14 May 2008 07:54:17 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16961/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16964/view Miss Tenant makes a valid point – technology can be overwhelming and consuming. Moderation can help prevent dependency on anything, and it is important to keep that in perspective. Wed, 14 May 2008 09:08:39 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16964/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16965/view So you aren’t against the use to technology, you just think we shouldn’t spend money on it? Wed, 14 May 2008 09:10:54 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16965/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16968/view This is my nomination for worst column of the year. She has had some major competition, but this is a clear winner. She dominated both the pointless subject category and the rambling thoughts category. The sentence/paragraph structure gets some bonus points. I am kind of surprised, because I thought that Poisson had the award in the bag. Wed, 14 May 2008 09:46:24 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16968/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16971/view I second Mark’s nomination, and would like to add that the foundational question of this article “What would you do if technology ceased to exist?” is not even wrong, in the same category as “What would you do if you woke up dead?”. That said, this article did give me a good laugh; thanks for that. Wed, 14 May 2008 10:37:32 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16971/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16976/view It’s more disconcerting that all of those nifty consumer electronics you refer to are built by low-wage workers in countries that hold our economy in a vice-grip. Perhaps you’d rather speak to the dangers of being dependant not on technology, but on foreign imports that America no longer wants to build? Wed, 14 May 2008 12:05:43 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16976/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16979/view I object to the idea that people do not want to build the stuff… It is that people in America want to build it for a wage which puts them above the poverty line. And the below poverty line wages that the companies want to pay, significantly raise the standard of living for the people in those countries. The only way to compete in this global economy is to lower the living standard here. Wed, 14 May 2008 13:56:57 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16979/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16981/view First of all, technology includes almost every kind of tool we use by definition. Second of all, this article sucks. This girl might be in the running to compete with Fish’s articles. Third, I second Bill’s comment… why the hell do all of the SN writers insist on using those stupid lame, one-sentence openers? Wed, 14 May 2008 14:04:36 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16981/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16988/view “I object to the idea that people do not want to build the stuff…” I was referring to America as a corporation. Why build in America when you can pay someone in Taiwan or Beijing 1/10th of an American worker? With the savings, you can afford a good legal staff and marketing team to smooth over problems with lead paint, counterfeit ingredients, etc… Wed, 14 May 2008 18:04:39 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16988/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16989/view I think this was a good column with good points. Technology has not really made peoples lives that much better in the larger sceme of things. With all the new junk coming out, our landfills are being flooded with more waste to make way for the next gadget. If technology really made peoples lives easier then why is there still just as much turmoil, greed, hatred and delusion as there ever was since the dawn of man? Some of the technology has its uses but it’s all pretty uneccessary. People lived for millenia without it, why do we feel that we need it? Wed, 14 May 2008 19:18:46 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/16989/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/17005/view “Some of the technology has its uses but it’s all pretty uneccessary. People lived for millenia without it, why do we feel that we need it?” Vaccines against smallpox, polio, and influenza. Sanitation systems. C-sections and forceps. CT, MRI, and ultrasound systems. People lived (and usually died early) without these for millenia as well, but I doubt you would throw them away as useless. Be careful labelling “all” technology as useless. “If technology really made peoples lives easier then why is there still just as much turmoil, greed, hatred and delusion as there ever was since the dawn of man?” Well, without the internet, satellite links, and television, how exactly would you know about the grief in China? Scrolls? Merchant vessels? Carrier piegons? The amount of turmoil isn’t necessarily the same as it ever was – it’s just more well-known due to improved communication. And on the flip side: consider how much Americans have donated to relief efforts for the 2004 Tsunami, the crisis in Myanmar, and the recent quake in China. How much aid do you think would have been given had we not been aware through the communications technology we have today? Do you seriously think that the grief and turmoil would have been less without it? Thu, 15 May 2008 08:35:37 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/17005/view http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/17061/view Actually in journalism one sentence paragraphs are very common Bill Lumberg. It makes the reader feel like they’re getting through the article faster and feel like it flows better, so it is often used. I’m not on the State News staff but I do know that most if not all major papers write in this style. Fri, 16 May 2008 09:56:55 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/17061/view