I finally, finally learned to knit well. Following a book to learn knitting is nearly impossible. (Bear with me, I will get to the roaches soon, you power-hungry roach-overlord-in-training.) Such things used to be taught from mother to daughter in the far distant past. Now we can learn nearly anything from anybody online. Next time you hear some wonk on TV complaining about how over-stimulated we all are with too much data, just remember that technology offers choices, and we experience small miracles every day through technology. We take technology for granted because we were born into it.
The RoboRoach. (Yes, that is a real roach.) Source: https://backyardbrains.com/products/roboroach
I was streaming an old Louis C.K. standup routine last night and he was talking about this very thing. We might get irritated in the self-checkout line waiting for someone to figure out how to find bananas on the touchscreen, and get irritated about the wait. Stop right there. Let’s go back three-hundred years…bananas were not ubiquitous in stores back then. In fact, stores were few and far between for most people, living in an agrarian society, and the barter system was more likely to be used. The majority of the population grew their own food. So if you wanted a loaf of bread you grew the wheat, milked the cow, and churned the butter…you get the picture. It took forever to get food on the table. Back then, knitting was “Minecraft” for women, a chance to relax and create.
Back to that streaming video: Louis C.K. mentioned how someone next to him was cursing under his breath about the Wi-Fi not working on the plane. Louis said something like, “You are in a chair hurtling through the air at several hundred miles per hour, and you are complaining?”
So next time you find yourself getting impatient about some piece of technology, whether it be too much or too little for your immediate whim, remember that we live like the Kings of yesteryear. A couple hundred years ago, only the very rich had hot water on demand (usually lugged up stairs by other people.) Today, even those considered to be “living below the poverty line” in America have indoor plumbing and have hot water on demand, no indentured servants required.
In fact, convenience via technology has gotten a bit silly. Now you can order laundry soap to arrive at your door at the push of a button…and not a button on your smartphone, literally a button that’s mounted on your washing machine. (Do we need this? Can’t the button just put it on my grocery list? What happens if my toddler orders 50 gallons of soap; do I have to pay return shipping?)
Back on the farm in 1815, people had incredible ingenuity and ability to perform on-demand problem-solving. Fast forward to 2015, and people are still solving problems with ingenuity and perseverance, except now they are using technology. For those who scoff at “The Internet of Things,” it’s pervasive, from the school teacher who uses the Remind application to inform both parents and children via tablet or text, to the Parkinson’s medical researcher who has hundreds of Parkinson’s’ sufferers reporting symptoms in a home-based research trial via smartphone….people are using technology to solve even tiny problems. Some people are solving problems that we didn’t know we had, like reading RFID tags on wildlife without freaking them out. Or delivering toothpaste to a hotel room via a hospitality robot. Or herding sheep with a drone (potentially rendering border collies jobless worldwide.)
STEM, or Internet of (Insane) Things?
Some view technology as the ultimate educational tool. Such as teaching neuroscience with Roboroach, whereby the user buys a kit, and attaches a tiny Bluetooth board to the back of a pet-store roach, whereby she/he can “steer” the live roach left or right via antenna stimulus directed from a smartphone. Before you become horrified and contact PETA (or would it be PETI?), note that this at least channels evil scientist tendencies into neuroscience. Some kid will figure out how to make the roach back up accompanied by beeping like a garbage truck. (Applied behavioral science? Look for roach treats in your local pet mega-mart.)
If this doesn’t just downright “incredulize” you, then you might be part of the Borg collective, and you have already been assimilated.
Figure 2: The Borg Insignia. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)
Lynnette Reese holds a B.S.E.E from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Lynnette has worked at Mouser Electronics, Texas Instruments, Freescale (now NXP), and Cypress Semiconductor. Lynnette has three kids and occasionally runs benign experiments on them. She is currently saving for the kids’ college and eventual therapy once they find out that cauliflower isn’t a rare albino broccoli (and other white lies.)