Greg Morris

The Wonder Of Tech

For the last few months, I have been trying to work out why I can’t be bothered with tech any more. I have felt these feeling before, but always come around again when something happens, or I just come out of the rut. Don’t get me wrong. I have long given up writing about it in any great details, I leave that to people better at it than I, but this time is different – I just can’t be bothered with it at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I still read about it and keep slightly up to date with news, but most of it is just met with a shrug. Thankfully, I worked out my feelings while reading Platformer this morning, and I think it’s because the wonderment has gone.

What makes these moments stand out, I think, is the sense that some unpredictable set of new possibilities had been unlocked. — Casey Newton

There are a few things in my life I still look back on that created these feelings of amazement. The “oh shit” moments that technology improvement split my life into a before and after section. The first time I logged into Yahoo chat and the person I spoke to was from the USA, the first time I downloaded a song from the internet instead of needing a tape. Google Assistant speaking the answer to a question straight back to me, or filling my room with sound from one Sonos speaker.

The list could go on and on, but all of these things seem very far behind me. Where have my “Oh shit” moments gone, and what could create them going forward? In the post above, Casey talks about AI providing the next line in the sand that we will all remember. The moment where the world changed forever, and you look back on to remember where you were when it all changed.

Perhaps Casey’s right, it could be a long way off, but Ai advancements will provide a real change to the way the world works. What won't provide it is Apple putting widgets on my lock screen, or being able to shoot a photo at 3x instead of 2x. My world of tech has slowed, and it is perhaps no longer about world-changing moments and instead slow progress forward which can mostly be ignored.

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