As I turned on my computer yesterday morning, after the two-hour Lincoln Tower power outage (for electrical repairs), I shuddered at the “whirr” my tower produced, which was in volume, eerily similar to most industrial fans.
Though a small bit of me was worried the emissions would wake up the rest of my suite, most of my concern was over the horrible thought in the back of my mind that my computer might again be closing in on another hard-drive failure.
I then remembered the previous night: as I sat in the suite room, I heard my cell phone’s distant ring in my bedroom, and quickly made a Jackie Chan-esque ninja jump off the couch, breaking into a sprint to answer the caller on time.
It was after reviewing these two situations I came back to a discussion I often have with myself (and occasionally even with other people) about how technology controls people more and more every day, on both a personal and global level.
My life has become an illustration of this point. As many college students do, I am instantly drawn to my computer the second I hear the familiar “Bling” I know represents a new message by someone on one of my online messenger contact lists.
My obedience and subservience to my cell phone is just as complete. I rush to each command it barks at me. The “Buckeye Battle Cry” is no longer just a call to arms for OSU fans everywhere, but a good indication my mom is trying to reach me for the third time this hour.
The ultimate leash, however, is the one stretching from my neck to my hard drives. Within the past two years, I have had two hard drives completely lock up on me – not from viral, but physical, damage which astounds me given the care I take with it, especially in transportation. Each hard drive loss hurt me on an emotional level. I lost thousands of songs and many samples of my writing.
I’m still feeling the shockwaves of the last crash, in which I lost all my printer information. My computer does not recognize my printer anymore and won’t return its calls, and now my poor piece of inking hardware is sitting in my basement, wondering how often my computer used the “It’s not you, it’s me” excuse before.
An exceptional conversation I had recently also re-opened my eyes to the global dependency on modern technology. Imagine the ramifications of a world-wide computer shut-down (And we’ll even go easy on humanity and say power supplies would remain operational, though most are run by computers).
Good-bye economy. The stock market? Gone. Commerce? Unless you have cash, you’re screwed. And if you do have cash, pray the register doesn’t need a computer chip to function. Communication? E-mail is obviously no longer an option, and cell phones become cool-looking pieces of plastic, nothing more. For that matter, any digitally-based communication (which would be most phone service) is probably wiped out. So get out your inkwell – a three-hour online conversation now becomes a month-long mail correspondence.
Is somebody robbing your store? Police do use radio, but they’re not nearly as organized without computers. Most likely, you’d be notifying your local National Guard installment at this point, anyway.
So what you have is complete chaos. Crime is rampant. Sure, criminals can’t steal money, but goods are still in demand. People can’t go out and buy anything because most of the United States’ commerce is unaccessible. And there’s relatively no communication compared to what we’re used to, which is the ability to contact anyone – anywhere – with a computer and modem.
And though the chances of a world-wide computer shutdown are slim, they exist, along with many possibilities of electronic collapse on smaller, but significant levels. But there’s little I can say or suggest that could offer any help on a global level – the world is going digital and will continue to do so for a long time.
On a personal level, I cannot reasonably suggest not using computers at all. I do, however, suggest putting as much information – documents and numbers, especially – on hard copy. That way, a computer crash – while horribly inconviencing – does not become a crippling or fatal loss. Use computers – they make many tasks much easier, and do some things humans simply cannot. Just make sure if your computer becomes unplugged, you’re not shut off with it.
Kyle Woodley is The Lantern opinion editor and can be reached for comment at [email protected].
