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The Price of Progress other pages past

Not long ago, the dude in the yellow coat was driving a little beauty that was the wizbangiest techno-marvel on the planet. But it was the envy of only some of his neighbors. Here's what one neighbor had to say back then:

"That's a reckless, risk-taking visionary at the wheel. Clearly out to destroy the fabric of life of the blacksmith, the stable owner, the haygrower. Ha! He's not about to, of course, because nothing can replace the dependability and reliability of the horse, which has held us in good stead as long as human memory, folks.

"If you want to run one of these noisy, smelly mechanical things, you practically need a technical degree. They break down all the time. Not like a trained horse, where you just talk to it. And if you treat it right, a horse will last you for years. How long before this snake-oil visionary tries to sell you on his next home-wrecking, job-sucking scam?"

Just think if that neighbor could have envisioned the day when these job suckers would turn into job producers and look like this Maserati Ghibli.

Neither the neighbor nor the visionary could have foreseen that one day cars also would contribute to our:

killing as many Americans every year in traffic accidents as the total who died in the Vietnam War

depleting natural resources, polluting urban air, and causing a geopolitical scramble that would lead to war after war in the search for more and cheaper oil

propelling health care costs into the stratosphere to treat pollution-caused cancers and respiratory diseases ... plus the quarter million Americans maimed every year in the carnage on the highways

wasting countless hours driving and waiting in traffic

finding an outlet for the road rage now,  like alcohol, seen to fuel traffic accidents

One-third of an American city is paved to make way for these monsters. Large segments of the legal and insurance industries are devoted to problems stemming from cars.

Are we starting to make the same mistakes with computers? Instead of killing the bodies of some of us, will they kill the minds of some of us? If as a society we're will to accept an annual "accidental" body count of 35 - 50,000 of our family, friends, and neighbors, what annual mind count will we accept as the toll of progress with computers? Is it progress?

Those are large questions to answer all at once, so first ask how the old car turned into the new car.

One answer is a focus on design. The changes in cars evolved gradually in response to these driving forces:

the physical demands of speed
the strength of metal, rubber, and plastic
the quality of gasoline
the efficiency of engines

Plus one other factor . . . the human factor.