It’s always frustrating to check in the the blog and see that I have completely ignored it for over a month. In this case, I am almost surely breaking my own record of days between posts. Not cool. And not that it’s any real excuse but my laptop stopped working a few weeks ago and took me back to pre-digital age for a second. It was frightening. My music and video production was crippled and even though I still had the Internet in my pocket, I realized just how much I use that machine. So when I was told that it had moved beyond its economically feasible repair life, I had extremely mixed sentiments. I am aware that consumer electronics take a heavy social toll in many parts of the world: mining various component metals and assembling the devices and recycling our retired junk are almost never done with standards we would accept in our own country so it seems irresponsible and inhumane to consume these products at the pace we do: three years of service is part of technology’s inherent progressive obsolescence as the next generation puts more power and speed in our machines. To look back at where it started for me and my Mac classic 20 years ago and consider the massive upgrade in capabilities, I guess I will accept my steady reinvestment in the research and development of these products. If only there were a way to do that without supporting rebel armies and skirting labor laws…
Posted inTechnology