A Word from Eric Miller for October, 2005

The Technology That Sustains Us

One such observation I've made is the unwillingness or lack of interest for those of a younger generation to interact with the physical world. I haven't seen any studies, but my inclination is those under 30 years of age (I am 36), and certainly under 25 years of age, have less interest in home projects, gardening, arts and crafts, sketching, board games, auto mechanics, bicycle repair, virtually anything that involves using hands for anything other than typing and clicking.

It's not uncommon for older folks to make observations and judgments about younger folks. It's been happening undoubtedly since the dawn of time. What one generation may see as cause for concern, another will know as a normal way of life. And, like it or not, each generation leads the new by creating the framework that brings the next generation to their world-view.

All that said, and there's always a qualifier, humans need to remain rooted to that which can sustain us. As we have seen in dramatic examples of late, sometimes that technology becomes unavailable and we are rudely reconnected to the physical world.

Each day brings an increasing sense that the world, or at least the small part of it we live in, can descend into chaos at any moment. The situation we recently witnessed in New Orleans is but one example. When the hurricane came, many were able to evacuate. Even for the evacuees removed from their home, life, and to some degree technology, a new harsh world-view was upon them. For those who could not or did not evacuate, the alarm was undoubtedly far greater.

In New Orleans and surrounding areas, many, if not most, of the technologies we rely on were removed in one swoop from daily life. They were without running water, cell phones, regular phones, air conditioning, internet access, PDAs, and can openers! Some adapted, some perished, and all experienced some degree of awakening.

At a recent board meeting of our neighborhood community council in Pittsburgh, the devastation left by Katrina was discussed. One member commented that it could just as easily have been us. Another responded that it couldn't have been us because we don't live by the ocean. I recall a recent op-ed circulating through email that suggested the feds were to blame for encouraging people to live on the coasts by offering the federal flood insurance program (although I suspect New Orleans was a city of considerable size before the advent of federally sponsored flood insurance).

If you're one who might think calamity can't occur where you live, think again. While there is limited seismic activity in the Northeast, an earthquake is not outside the realm of possibility in Pittsburgh or Boston. Structures in these cities could not withstand a quake of any considerable magnitude. We're all under the threat of some type of terrorist act or strike with or without the code orange. With global warming, we're not likely to be free of violent storms anytime soon. (And one thought on that, say for the sake of argument global warming is not caused by humans. That's not to say what we do can't slow or reverse it.)

As we saw in New Orleans and later in Houston, the technologies that support us today also leave us quite vulnerable. Without the communication technologies, New Orleans was left without direction. When the highways clogged up and gasoline ran out, those fleeing Houston were stranded on highways and at the mercy of the elements.

If Pittsburgh were under such a threat, I'm not sure things would be so different. Even if all the bridges and tunnels withstood some unknown calamity, they would certainly provide additional obstacles to escape, where Houston's wide highways were left clear, but still un-traversable, escape routes. In New Orleans, other technologies, primarily trains, were apparently ignored.

The situations that have been presented to us are cause for alarm.

The severity of their impact could have been minimized.

Decisions we made, purposefully or not, magnified the damage.

What we do does matter. The way we live does matter.

We need to find (or simply know about) the additional technologies necessary to have the populations of our cities survive a catastrophe.

We must prepare the future generations to know what to do in situations when all the technologies around us fail.

We must be aware of the vulnerabilities the technologies we use have.

We must, especially in the case of global warming, know what eventual the impacts of the technologies we use could be and choose technology, not just for its commercial appeal, but for its social, physical, and civic impact as well. Eric Miller is editor of The New Colonist.

Go to A Word from Richard Risemberg

Return to Top