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This is some older writing of mine. It's about the mundane taken for granted assumption that more and
faster is better etc.......
The Rat-Lab
STUART M24
He was an odd fellow really, as odd as almost all are these days.
Stewart M24 was far more an unrepentant human doing, than a human being. The doing ethos having been foisted upon him so insidiously, that the option of naturalness or simply “being”, appeared to have been deleted from his personal hardware. To Stuart, time spent with friends, was time allotted for socialising , time spent with the kids, was time allotted for parenting, Even, the truly unlearnable art of simple relaxation had sadly become, something to be done.
But it needs to be said at this point, that poor Stuart-m24 must not be held accountable for the travesty of having his “whole life”, divided into a menu of disjointed soap opera skits, for, if he could have, just like you, just like me, he would have…..
Efficiency had been inflicted upon our Mr. M-24, at such a ripe and base age, that efficiency’s status as
supreme and imposing glitch was far too deeply buried to be recognized as even a possible candidate for internal investigation. In fact only a calamity, an act of god or a crash so thorough that it required a complete reinstall, could ultimately trigger Stuart into questioning, this previously unassailable virtue. And so, the unwitting predicament that Stuart M-24 lived, but in all actuality could not remotely gain insight into.
He would, as fast as the latest upgrades appeared, find himself profoundly busied with their procurement, and prerequisite learning curves .As in the all of life, inevitably there’d be conflicts between the new vs. the old and aptly named “drivers”. Hence the all consuming process of improvement would replay itself, with the result being, that by the time everything was working at it’s “new” and therefore “improved” peak of efficiency, Stuart was so exhausted and behind on the wondrous chores of living, that he never realized much, if any pleasure from his new toys, that is, before newer toys were once again on offer.
To Stuart’s m-24’s un-knowing chagrin, not a soul had once bothered to inform him, that in a crowded city, one rarely gets the opportunity to feel the G-force acceleration or the lithe maneuverability of, let’s say, the newest Porsche. That there are costs other than the cost, for the “newest of the new.” That realistically, one unwittingly exchanges hours of previously “free time” for hours of “encumbered time, or better put, “work time”, and that most of the time; those hours are in no way accounted for, when appraising a new gadget’s ability to make ones use of time… “more efficient”.
For isn’t it only after the superb dinner with friends is interrupted by the hair trigger car alarm, only after the finicky eye has gained a new prowess for scanning everyday dings, dents and scratches, only after the new piece of software conflicts with the old, that the loss of one’s peace of mind is finally taken into account, and the status of the trade as fair bargain, called into question? As is the case with the Porsche, the hidden costs remain hidden, that is, until after the unforeseen price is paid.
And so the question Stuartm-24 never asked, like most of his species, was: Is this bright and shiny new gadget, this fishhook, worth ALL of its more subtle costs?
Stuart M24 had unwittingly become a slave, to the three most insidious dictators of not only our time, but of
time itself… More, Better and the most diabolical of the three, Faster.
faster is better etc.......
The Rat-Lab
STUART M24
He was an odd fellow really, as odd as almost all are these days.
Stewart M24 was far more an unrepentant human doing, than a human being. The doing ethos having been foisted upon him so insidiously, that the option of naturalness or simply “being”, appeared to have been deleted from his personal hardware. To Stuart, time spent with friends, was time allotted for socialising , time spent with the kids, was time allotted for parenting, Even, the truly unlearnable art of simple relaxation had sadly become, something to be done.
But it needs to be said at this point, that poor Stuart-m24 must not be held accountable for the travesty of having his “whole life”, divided into a menu of disjointed soap opera skits, for, if he could have, just like you, just like me, he would have…..
Efficiency had been inflicted upon our Mr. M-24, at such a ripe and base age, that efficiency’s status as
supreme and imposing glitch was far too deeply buried to be recognized as even a possible candidate for internal investigation. In fact only a calamity, an act of god or a crash so thorough that it required a complete reinstall, could ultimately trigger Stuart into questioning, this previously unassailable virtue. And so, the unwitting predicament that Stuart M-24 lived, but in all actuality could not remotely gain insight into.
He would, as fast as the latest upgrades appeared, find himself profoundly busied with their procurement, and prerequisite learning curves .As in the all of life, inevitably there’d be conflicts between the new vs. the old and aptly named “drivers”. Hence the all consuming process of improvement would replay itself, with the result being, that by the time everything was working at it’s “new” and therefore “improved” peak of efficiency, Stuart was so exhausted and behind on the wondrous chores of living, that he never realized much, if any pleasure from his new toys, that is, before newer toys were once again on offer.
To Stuart’s m-24’s un-knowing chagrin, not a soul had once bothered to inform him, that in a crowded city, one rarely gets the opportunity to feel the G-force acceleration or the lithe maneuverability of, let’s say, the newest Porsche. That there are costs other than the cost, for the “newest of the new.” That realistically, one unwittingly exchanges hours of previously “free time” for hours of “encumbered time, or better put, “work time”, and that most of the time; those hours are in no way accounted for, when appraising a new gadget’s ability to make ones use of time… “more efficient”.
For isn’t it only after the superb dinner with friends is interrupted by the hair trigger car alarm, only after the finicky eye has gained a new prowess for scanning everyday dings, dents and scratches, only after the new piece of software conflicts with the old, that the loss of one’s peace of mind is finally taken into account, and the status of the trade as fair bargain, called into question? As is the case with the Porsche, the hidden costs remain hidden, that is, until after the unforeseen price is paid.
And so the question Stuartm-24 never asked, like most of his species, was: Is this bright and shiny new gadget, this fishhook, worth ALL of its more subtle costs?
Stuart M24 had unwittingly become a slave, to the three most insidious dictators of not only our time, but of
time itself… More, Better and the most diabolical of the three, Faster.
