Smarter and Dumber

As I wander through the dystopian wasteland that passes for a society, one aspect that stands out is the infantile fascination with flashy technology and electronic gadgetry.

​About ten years ago, after a long absence, I spent some time in New York City. One fine day, the weather was perfect; I took a leisurely stroll down Central Park West from 96th Street, where I was lodging. Seeing those grand pre-war apartment buildings filled my spirit with admiration and satisfaction. Eventually, I found myself in front of the Museum of Natural History, at the corner of 81st Street and Central Park West, waiting for the light to change.

I glanced around, and witnessed a profoundly disturbing scene: a mass of humanity, at least two dozen individuals, all staring into their little screens. They were oblivious to each other, to the scenery around them, in short, to the rest of the world. Naturally, I had previously seen groups of people communing with their electronic babysitters, but never this quantity of people, and with a backdrop of such magnificent architecture. The future had arrived, and it didn’t look pretty.

This obsession is called, in our current Orwellian linguistic haze: smart. Welcome to our new smart world. Everything is smart, down to the last fingernail. Translated into reality: smart = a device which can perform every electronic pirouette, and serves every purpose except its original intended use. Infinite bells and whistles, but core functionality has been pushed so far into the background, it is often hardly visible.

I have never owned a smart phone, but on the odd occasion when I try to use one provided by a friend, I find that one of the most cumbersome tasks to execute on this wondrous telephone is to make a phone call. Or consider a smart coffee maker. You can tear your hair out just trying to make a simple pot of coffee, without having to fiddle with the settings. Come to think of it, one is always compelled to configure; it is becoming impossible to use tools in an uncomplicated and straightforward manner.

In other words, we are awash in counterproductive and unnecessary complexity.

Then there is the modern automobile. Wasn’t the purpose of this machine to transport people, and light cargo, from point A to point B? Now, it is a computer with wheels attached. The constant ringing and beeping and buzzing can drive a person bonkers. Not to mention the harebrained and often dangerous “safety” features, such as the car suddenly taking over your braking or steering.

My car is from the model year 2017. This may have been the last opportunity to opt out of these rolling video games, by insisting on the base model, with no options. Not anymore. Buying a new car? You can’t escape. What’s more, the endless gizmofication pushes the cost up. Instead of a simple means of transportation, with a reasonable level of comfort, priced at say, $10K, we are presented with these ludicrous smart monsters at nosebleed prices. (I realize that there are many factors contributing to the rising cost, but this is one of the main culprits.)

If you want a device that performs its intended function simply and efficiently, you either have to buy it used, or pay more. I recently shopped for a blender, and was compelled to spend a fair amount of money to acquire one with actual dials (remember those?), three speeds, no screen, no settings, no Wi-Fi, no unrelated functionality; just a blender that blends, thank you very much.

And I haven’t even touched on the issue of social control, where the government (or its proxies) can monitor, turn off, or modify one of your smart devices without your knowledge or approval.

I am not opposed to technological innovation, it’s just that the innovation is not always beneficial. I would trade all the smart phones in the country for, say, a Japanese-quality subway system in all of our major cities.

As the population gets dumber, the devices get smarter. I wonder if there’s a connection…