Technology: How Much Is Too Much?

[doctorwayne]

Irony: updating to DCC in order run narrow gauge trains from the late 1800's!...
 

Yeah, that's like back to the future...or ahead to the past.

While I am impressed with some technological advances, it seems to me that too much of it is done only because it could be done, rather than needed to be done.

I am not at all a fan of recent automobiles and trucks, and even though my 17 year-old car is in need of some minor repairs, I wouldn't trade it for even the fanciest and most technologically refined vehicle available, even if that deal came with an additional million dollars.  I want a car that needs me to drive it, not one that treats me like an idiot.  I see idiots on the road all the time, and they're so idiotic that even their super-smart vehicles cannot help them.

I don't want appliances that are smarter than me (wouldn't take much, I guess), or ones that record my actions (or in-actions), and especially ones which are so advanced that they're obsolete before you can buy them because a better version has just been introduced.

A couple of years ago, we apparently bought the last available dumb TV, which doesn't listen to- or record us, or make unwanted choices for us, either.
The one in the basement, dating from the '80s, has a better picture and better sound, too, and is much simpler to operate.

While being smug and satisfied to be considered a Luddite, I am, of course, replying to this topic on a computer. Oh! The horror!! Oh! The humanity!!!  

Wayne