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COMPUTER


Nexus for netting information.

Today’s greatest threat to tradition.

Device for ‘programming’ everything.

What has given rise to powerful nerds.

Obliterator of time-honored plodding.

Inevitable, insidious triumphs of ‘smaller’.

Facilitator for storing, filing and retrieving quickly.

Ever improving means for accessing and utilizing the ‘unseen’.

What is linking the past with the future to produce a dynamic ‘now’.

Fomenter of anarchy encouraged by the ease of ‘filling buckets with lard’.
 

  • Perhaps the ‘real world’ is slowly being abandoned by ‘heads’ stalking through ‘fields of fluff’.
     
  • Perhaps ‘progress’ should not be ‘measured’ by problems solved but accomplishments savored.
     
  • Perhaps in the dark realms of ‘cyber space’ you can witness the clash of autonomy with intrepid ‘intruders’.
     
  • Perhaps emerging generations are becoming habituated to short bytes which generate short attention spans.
     
  • Perhaps expectation so dominates minds entranced with what is ‘popping up’ next that ‘screen junkies’ experience lives of restless frustration … they never ‘arrive’.
     
  • Perhaps we ignore the irony of gaining control over many facets of our lives while relinquishing our autonomy to outside influences; perhaps informed decision-making is becoming muddled.
     
  • Perhaps instant access to information presents responsibilities and accountabilities which demand action; perhaps unprecedented global integration is slowly eradicating boundaries; perhaps zealous xenophobia which fosters ignorance and diatribes will disappear … forever.
     
  • Perhaps speedy transport has undermined people’s appreciation of architecture, gardens and neighbors’ accomplishments; perhaps the computer, similarly, has been compelling users to skim through data and images rapidly; perhaps ‘edifying substance’ and inspiration are foolishly ignored.
     
  • Perhaps today’s intelligentsia are elated with their sense of omniscience engendered by extraordinary facility with data; perhaps they smugly ignore what makes them unique: Abilities to reflect, appreciate beauty and experience joy; perhaps arrogance will always compel egos to depend on themselves for answers; perhaps they will tragically never find Purpose.
     
  • Perhaps engaging tactile skills in the past allowed for planning and reflection … progress slowly measured and appreciated; perhaps dismissing this experience for the sake of expediency risks the loss of opportunities for community congeniality, self-satisfaction and developing disciplines: Perspective, flexibility, perseverance … to name a few.

ESSAY ON COMPUTER by EDWIN O’SHEA

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