While a person might be able to keep the home computer off and not use it for a whole day, I doubt that same person could go that same day without using any computer at all.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
A Saturday? That's easy, since I tend to do it anyway. Usually out doing something with the wife & kids. I think that question is completely different for college students, though, since most of them (on-campus ones, anyway) have full-time net access.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Could I go a full day without a computer. Certainly. I've done it before when the thing has broken.
Would I do so voluntarily? Probably not.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Do they count calculators, watches, car onboard computer, and all electronic clocks? Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
How about my pacema-ack! Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
If this includes embedded systems, it would be very difficult. All microwaves and ovens made in the last ten years would be out. Any TV likely to be still working would be out. Digital clocks. Cars made since the seventies. All cell phones, all digital portable phones, and I'd bet most other non-rotary phones too. And that's just on the user end, since the POTS switch is almost certainly digital.
So you'd have to spend this particular Saturday at home or within biking distance (unless you have an old car), not talk to anyone on the phone, never look at a digital clock, never watch TV, and only eat cold or stove-made things. Not impossible.
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I shut down my laptop the whole day when I went to the Star Trek convention in Pasadena last year or when I was at a film festival all day this year. Besides it's a Sat when they wanna do it.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
quote:Originally posted by Omega: If this includes embedded systems, it would be very difficult. All microwaves and ovens made in the last ten years would be out. Any TV likely to be still working would be out. Digital clocks. Cars made since the seventies. All cell phones, all digital portable phones, and I'd bet most other non-rotary phones too. And that's just on the user end, since the POTS switch is almost certainly digital.
So you'd have to spend this particular Saturday at home or within biking distance (unless you have an old car), not talk to anyone on the phone, never look at a digital clock, never watch TV, and only eat cold or stove-made things. Not impossible.
"Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't fucking ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as shit DON'T FUCKING ROLL!! SHOMER SHABBOS!!"
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I'm tired of these things...these, Turn off Your TV day, Turn Off your Computer Day...why don't we just have Go Without Deodorant Day or Turn Off your Fridge Day? I mean for God's sake, we invent these wonderful machines of technological splendour and leisure, and then we all decide we should stop using them on certain days... I'm tired of being told its somehow 'bad' to spend time online or watching TV or having a cellphone glued to my ear. I *like* those things. </rant>
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Just gettunf us ready for that big solar flare (and accompanying EMP) that the government knows will hit soon....
Ever wonder why firearms never have computers in them? It's a CONSPARICY! TEH NRA AND REDNECKS WILL INHERIT TEH EARTH!
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
As long as that cell phone is not glued to your ear while you are driving, I won't have to kill you.
Technology is all well and good, but the western world is too dependant on it. Not a day goes buy that I don't see some business man or soccer mom jabbering away on thier cells while they're cruising through an amber light. I wonder what would happen if all the TV, Radio, and phone/internet services went offline. Nothing really life threatening like food, water, or power. There would still be riots and pandemonium because of all the people who can't live without thier precious luxuries.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Theres a gadget that does nothing but block cell reception for about 100 ft- I want one for my car soooo badly. Mant times I've narrowly avoided injury/death due to some ass talking on his/her cell while driving.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Then there's always the "Rise of the Machines"....
Children of the Western world now think that milk comes from the grocery store. And how many of today's kids even have chores to do? I would bet that less than 2% would even have a clue about planting a garden to raise food for the family. Being born in the 60's, I had to help my grandparents in the garden, worked my summers in construction with my uncle starting in the 7th grade, and most of my Saturdays I was mowing 5-10 yards for money.
Too reliant on tech? Yeah, I'd say so. Even worse is the fact that today's youth have been brought up with the X-box and not a work ethic.
[ March 12, 2007, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: WizArtist II ]
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
You were born in the 60's?
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
We don't need cell phones shut off while driving. We need *headsets*. Soon enough that's all cell phones will be...and not too long in the future and they'll be in our skulls. And for the record, I'm in favor of being dependent on technology. After all, the Earth couldn't support a sixth of what it does today if we weren't dependent on technology...
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Mant times I've narrowly avoided injury/death due to some ass talking on his/her cell while driving.
Narrowly Avoided? Lucky you. I wish I could have narrowly avoided that stupid nurse lady pulling out of the parking lot with one hand on her phone and the other on her coffee/steering wheel...
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: You were born in the 60's?
SOME would say "hatched".....
But, Yes I was born in the 60's.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80:
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Mant times I've narrowly avoided injury/death due to some ass talking on his/her cell while driving.
Narrowly Avoided? Lucky you. I wish I could have narrowly avoided that stupid nurse lady pulling out of the parking lot with one hand on her phone and the other on her coffee/steering wheel...
My last "close encounter with the stupid kind" was some ass making an illegal U-turn while his neck was holding his phone to his shoulder- thus cutting off the city bus I was stuck behind. Guy never even noticed what he did and just kept talking....
There's a whole series of books detailing some mystery event that destroys all eletronics and (somehow!) firearms in one instant. Monhs after all the massive fires and other disasters have played out, people start roaming packs and some crazy SCA type is the main baddie. A great concept, but the circumstances of the characters coming together is so farfetched as to make SG1 seem like CSPAN.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Children of the Western world now think that milk comes from the grocery store. And how many of today's kids even have chores to do? I would bet that less than 2% would even have a clue about planting a garden to raise food for the family."
We aren't a predominantly agrarian society. So kids think milk comes from the grocery store. Back in the '50s, kids thought milk came from a guy in a truck every morning.
The Industrial Revolution was over a century ago. Get over it.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Tim, its the fact that most of the younger generation are complete idiots. I like my tech stuff too, but if some catastrophe did occur that wiped out the tech or a disaster occurred that people couldn't rely on it for everything, what would society do? There isn't a lot of basic survival instincts in vogue today other than the aforementioned gang mentality. My point is that this generation believes it is here to be entertained and that it is OWED to them. They would not be able to sustain themselves without tech, and most likely would die quickly or become savages. We saw in New Orleans idiots running around stealing things that are pretty meaningless when your very life is at stake. "Go steal some Ipods and electronics or try to find food" and we saw them make the former choice.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
It would be funny to see kids today have to rediscover the library. I never see anyone in there that isn't in elementary school or over 30.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Hey, I'm not over 30, and while I don't go to the library per se, I still read. I just prefer to buy my books. Library books are nasty. They usually have pages torn out, and are covered in blood, or spit, or semen...
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Amen to that. There's no greater joy that having your own copy of a book which you can cover with your own blood, or spit, or semen...
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
(or, obviously, some combination thereof)
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
.....
I think you guys are going to the wrong library.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Probably. I borrowed The Bear and The Dragon from the local library and it had dozens of pages missing. Page 56: Gone. Page 233: Gone. Pages 249-254: Gone. Pages 501-509: Gone.
So I went and bought it. The point is, when you check something out that a hundred other people already have (Be it book, or movie) it's going to get wrecked. Because there's always someone out there who thinks "Hey, it's not mine, so why should I bother taking care of it?" I've got five free movie rentals from Blockbuster because they kept giving me DVD's that looked like they spent a winter on the sidewalk.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
OTOH, the whole "mint" thing with comics is a blessing for libraries. One dog-eared page may send a true comics fan screaming to the nearest library to make a donation and get rid of the ruined thing...
I'm currently waiting for slightly spoiled Sillage albums (Wake for ye English speakers, but the translations are annoyingly censored) to hit the shelves that way. They're too damn expensive to acquire by other means, not to mention mostly sold out.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I must admit though some books stores also take poor care of their books. At Barnes and Noble I go to in Manhattan the pages in some books are sometimes torn or folded. Plus it doesn't help that the other customers seem to mistake it for a library and are always sitting on the floor, reading. They just don't sit anywhere-no, they have to block entryways and entire shelves of books. I had to ask this one fat lady to move because her gargantuan behind was blocking the section of Star Wars/ Star Trek novels.
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
And I'll bet she gave YOU a dirty look, as if it was your fault for her being in the way and fat.
I like libraries, but I can't stand bookshops that have a sort of cafe in them, and encourage people to read the whole book in the shop, pretending to be libraries. Also, those little lables that some shops have where some customer has written a review that they thought was "cute". They are not, no matter how many flowers you draw or even if you draw little hearts instead of dots above a lower case 'i'.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Oh yeah that God damn dirty look, like I had cursed her out or something...
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
She should be glad it wasn't me she was giving that dirty look to. I probably would have cursed her out.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I'm noticing again that people in this thread are talking about younger people liking tech as if it were only entertainment. This isn't about becoming savages if we didn't have our MTV. I hate MTV. But without computers and satellite communications and TV capability, we wouldn't be able to *sustain* ourselves. No airplanes, no traffic lights, no electricity since they're controlled by computers, no water or fuel since fuel is pumped electrically, so pretty soon no refrigerators or meat packing plants or even harvesting tractors, so no food in anyplace but the most rural areas, and billions upon billions of people would die, except in the third world where millions already die from disease.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
We sustained ourselves quite well in the 50s.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
Go watch Jericho. Now.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
That would require me to have television.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
This whole debate seems to be predicated on the idea of some "disaster" that would somehow "break all technology". Exactly what would that be?
I mean, as long as we're making that sort of speculation, how about a disaster that destroys all plants? We need those to live. Or a disaster that destroys all oxygen? That one would take us out even quicker.
It just seems like we're playing "what if?" ad absurdum here. Sure, if all technology suddenly disappeared, a lot of people would die. Same thing if the sun blows up. But it's not very likely, so I'm not going to worry about it.
(Also, if all that disappear-able technology weren't here in the first place, a lot of people would already have died. Just take a look at our ongoing medical-history-of-half-the-people-at-Flare thread for details.)
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Shik: We didn't sustain 6 billion *people* in the 50's. Nor could you affordably get from New York to Hong Kong in less than a day. Not to mention get a car, hotel room, and restaurant lined up six weeks in advance of your trip. So at least we couldn't sustain our society, which I happen to like. It's full of people I can laugh at.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
You also didn't HAVE to get a car, room, & restaurant lined up 6 weeks in advance, or get to Hong Kong in a day. We still don't; the self-impositions just make it seem like we do.
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