Letters: Obsolete Technology

Readers' complaints that our young people are helpless when thrown back on obsolete technology, such as the dial telephone and simple addition, have aroused a protest.

You may remember reading here about the fifth-grade pupil who wanted to call home from school but didn't know how to use the dial phone, and the ice cream parlor that had to close because the computerized cash register broke down.

These stories suggested that young people are almost wholly dependent on state of the art technology, and also that we older people are becoming obsolete or outdated along with the machines of our era.

Perhaps it is the latter that hurts.

John A. Junot wants to know whether, if my car broke down, I would know how to ride a horse. I might be willing to try. But the problem is—where could I ride one?

Junot suggests that I would either get the car repaired or replace it. That is what today's young engineers do when their computers break down, he points out.

In that respect I am as dependent on modern technology as the young. I have allowed myself to become wholly dependent on my computer, and when it breaks down I am like a man cast adrift at sea in a small boat.

"Cultures do not lose arts and skills," Junot argues. "They abandon them. Calculating by slide rule is in exactly the same class as archery, blacksmithing, sailing, hand-weaving and drawing. To the extent that those things are done, they are done by hobbyists, historians and cultural anthropologists and are preserved mainly by librarians."

Junot points out that certain ancient skills, such as archery and sailing, are themselves improved by modern technology. "Robin Hood probably couldn't shoot one of today's graphite/ epoxy compound bows."

He says: "And so to that fifth-grader who didn't know how to dial a dial-type phone, you imply that the boy was somehow culturally deprived, and that it would 'come in handy' if he learned."

"I fail to see how. Rotary-dial phones are going the way of high-button shoes; they are uncommon now and doomed to extinction simply because you can't talk to computers with a rotary-type phone."

Junot points out that the first computers are already obsolete. I know what he means. I bought the first IBM Personal Computer on the market. Recently I blew what is known as the "mother card." It was replaced by a more advanced clone card that is not perfectly compatible with my machine. I have had little but misery with it ever since.

Junot says it would have been impossible for the ice cream clerks to go on doing business, making their calculations by hand, when their computerized register failed.

"Well, before cash registers were invented, business was done that way. And employees stole because it was easy. Cash registers were invented precisely to keep employees honest, and to protect them from charges of dishonesty ... "

"Furthermore, computerized receipts are used for computing sales tax and the printouts for people buying on expense accounts. Are you suggesting that the kids give the businessman and the tax man numbers scribbled on the backs of paper sacks? The manager was probably only following the company policy when he closed the store."

"Evidently, then, we have seen the end of mental calculations. Those fast-food computers even note the amount of money the customer pays and also the exact amount of change due. The clerk doesn't even have to figure out how much change is due from a $10 bill, nor does the customer, since he can assume that the computer doesn't err."

It's OK with me. I never was any good at arithmetic, anyway, and I'm glad I have lived long enough to see it become obsolete.

Meanwhile, Barbara Jones of Santa Barbara wonders how children can ever learn how to tell time when all they see are digital watches.

And Sally Wade wonders, "How will tomorrow's adult (today's child) ever master a wrench, spigot, tap, screw or the like when the directions tell him/ her to turn it 'clockwise' or 'counterclockwise' in this age of digital clocks?"

Why would tomorrow's adult ever have to use a wrench or a screwdriver?

Anyway, I think schoolroom clocks still have hands.

I will give the last word to Barbara L. Sigman of Simi Valley:

"I cannot let your article escape me without at least a murmur of protest. The 'young' are not all a bunch of mindless, although charming, beautiful and healthy people, as you imply ...  Some of us read Shakespeare, Flaubert, and even Voltaire! Better yet, we can dial telephones and we can make change. And a few of us know a tiny bit about history, too."

Thank you, Ms. Sigman.

I'm glad to know that all is not lost.