Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Executive Computer Training for the Techno-unsavvy?
Shaheen calls her approach “technology therapy,” and the logo for her small company, e-businesscreations, features a caricature of a computer resting on a therapist’s couch. For $750 a month, an executive gets two hours of training, two one-hour phone calls and e-mail support.
Yes, computer use is becoming ubiquitous in our society. I can't think of any other comparison for this. Not driving, since there are people who function well without cars, especially in big cities. There's a slight stigma to not driving, but usually there are good reasons. Though with computers, I see our society pointing to not knowing how to operate a computer as a stigma and hindrance.

Never before has our society faced such a need for everybody to know such a complex thing. Cars, aren't as complex. And while TVs are ubiquitous, they are hardly complex.

Which makes me think, there is little in our base primate brain to cope with this strange complex thing we call a computer. It's not a social thing, though we can proxy our social needs with it. Sight and sound are involved but there's no survival need to it. The closest thing I can think of is our use of environmental navigation and positive behavioral reinforcement.

I guess the closest thing you get is reading and writing. In fact, that's probably the best analogy. At a base primate level, there is no accounting for reading and writing, though such a technology has changed human survival. Computers require as much education, learning, comprehension, and understanding as learning a language. Thus the term "computer literacy" is very accurate. So saying "computers confuse me" and similar is the same thing as saying "writing and reading confuses me".

They say for a country to become a democracy (republic, pluralism, etc) requires a 50% or better literacy. More specific, one of the results of majority literacy is democracy. So what happens when there is a majority in computer literacy. Is that what is happening in reaction to various legislation in our goverment?

TOPIC: tech, society

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