RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?

Subject: RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
From: "Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>
To: "'voxwoman'" <voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:22:32 -0700

I also know how to construct clothing and still do from time to time - my
mother was a professional seamstress and needed someone to run long seams to
do the piecework faster. She got me my first sewing machine at 9 to help
her. I also knit, crochet, cook-ish, and can grow a garden. I can dry wall,
mud and tape a wall, finish concrete and build a fence. I can also patch
walls and strip wall paper. I can read a financial report and make sense of
it, plan a funeral in less than a day, and throw great parties. I'm pretty
useful all the way. ;-)



But my point is, the world is too complicated for us all to spend time on
these things if we don't want to. We've reached the point where technology
is generally indistinguishable from magic.



Cars, cell phones, computers - these are shrink wrap technology. They
shouldn't be hard and we should be able to use them without a clue as to how
they work, if that's what we want.



Now as tech comm professionals, we adore learning this stuff. It's fun!



sharon



Sharon Burton

MadCap Software Product Consultant

951-369-8590

IM: sharonvburton -at- yahoo -dot- com



From: voxwoman [mailto:voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:09 AM
To: sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com
Cc: Gene Kim-Eng; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?



So they can make costumes for fancy-dress parties?

It must be the engineer in me, but I have a desire to know how *everything*
works, even if I can't (or don't want to) fix it myself.

There are occasions, when essential technology will break and you will be
left to your own devices for some period of time. True, I grew up before the
ubiquity of cell phones, and I had to assist my boyfriend in reattaching a
transmission in a Ford Falcon on a deserted road during moonless night with
only a tire iron and some road flares for light. Otherwise we'd be walking
for hours before we found civilization.

This quote from Bob Heinlein also affected me quite strongly at a young age:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher
a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts,
build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders,
cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects."

(I also know how to construct clothing. Without patterns if needed)






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References:
Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?: From: Daniel Ng
Re: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?: From: Gene Kim-Eng
RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?: From: Sharon Burton
Re: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?: From: voxwoman

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