Nan Lurie: Technological improvements (1937)
Works Progress Administration

"We thrive exclusively on the promise of another paradigm shift …"

Technology serves as both our enabler and enslaver. It encourages hope and creates the lion's share of the frustrations we daily struggle to cope with. If ever a human invention exemplified the notion that there's no such thing as a free lunch, Technology holds that distinction. It giveth while also taking away. It encourages before disappointing. It seems to be continually, constantly annoying. On my better days, I find ways to fiddle with it less. On my worst days, it can hold me completely in its thrall. I curse its presence and pitch a fit when I cannot access it. It improves life immeasurably, by which I mean unavoidably. It creeps into routines almost unobserved, then won't let go for anything.

It seems I can barely remember my life before, if I had a life before Tech. I remember the allure of tiny transistor radios when I was still a child. They enabled me to hold my future in my hand. Imagine a portable radio! What's next, I remember asking, portable phones? I grew up in a Dick Tracy comic, where Tech was already fully integrated into that imaginary society. I stood in our backyard patch of corn and watched Sputnik fly over. Humanity was headed for the moon! Soon, I figured, everyone would have computers. Our cars would drive themselves. Heck, we'd probably even have color television!

In its day, Technology always has a heyday. At introduction, it promises to finally resolve what was formerly an insoluble problem. The steel plow was once just such a technology. Everyone suddenly needed to have one. The poorest farmer would almost kill themselves for the necessary resources because this was a game-changer. One day, nobody was the wiser. The following day, everyone had become enlightened and were running into an immeasurably brighter future. Tech has always had this effect on people. It broadens horizons and enlivens spirits. It brings promise before it brings disappointment. Its promises eventually come to seem overblown. The disappointment comes as a betrayal, even when—and this is always the case—the original attraction was misunderstood to be more than it realistically could have ever been. These cycles of optimism and disappointment describe technology deployment's history and likely future. It ultimately delivers less than initially imagined.

The imaginal part of Tech must be its most significant element. Until it disappoints, it thrills. It transports its user far into their prior future and previously unimaginable ease. I was online the first night AOL came online for the first time in Silicon Valley. I had been connected via Compuserv, but this new protocol promised much better. I spent a frustrated hour trying to display graphics via my 14K dial-in modem before cancelling my new subscription that first evening. The promise fell far short of delivering. I became an instant skeptic of the World Wide Web and took to avoiding it. I could accomplish what I needed with FTP and Usenet. It took a couple of years before the technology finally caught up to me. Tech can get ahead of itself and deliver its inevitable disappointment first. This only briefly tarnishes its allure.

Now, of course, I carry my World Wide Web everywhere, and I'm completely tangled in it. I spend an unconscionable amount of my unrefundable time online. Politicians have learned to use Tech to hold even their opposition's attention. Platforms subtly promote particular agendas to their unknowing audiences. People are forever swearing to undergo some form of Tech clense, where they trade in their smart phones for clunky old flip phones more like Dick Tracy used back in the days when our future seemed to contain more unexplored upside. Every upgrade provides a fresh opportunity to imagine Tech finally delivering in ways it never has, while also delivering the fresh disappointment necessary to keep this universe in balance. Artificial Intelligence has been the next best thing, that and Quantum Computing. We thrive exclusively on the promise of another paradigm shift and the sure and certain confidence that whatever the next big thing is, it will prove to be a disappointment, just like always.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #CHope , #PureSchmaltz