information structure

This is a reply/discussion of sorts to Elise's recent post. She was waxing philosophical about what a global information infrastructure would look like from the perspective of an overloaded mind.

This is something that I've spend a fair amount of time thinking about. My degree (when I finish the paperwork in a month or two) is towards computer information science. I've thought a bit about what that would look like beyond technology. The more I think past technology, the more I see us going back to the way things were 60 years ago. People worked for a living. Really worked. We didn't sit at a desk and shuffle papers and broker deals. The men worked in the field or in a shop. We built stuff; stuff that lasted. Hard wood, cool metal. We sat down for dinner every night with our family. The women worked hard too. They toiled hard to make sure that we had a couple of nice meals each day. I miss those meals. They tasted SO good!

Anyway, back on topic. People had families over for dinner. They met for coffee. They had game nights. They *gasp* talked face to face! After dinner was always one of my favorite times. The adults would get together and talk and discuss and roll around. Everything from politics to religion to concepts and difficulties. All of those things that are now taboo, they talked about these things.

It was funny and the adults always laughed a bit about it, but they never gave me shit. There would be 5 or 6 adults talking about why some tax cut was good or bad and why. Then there would be this 5-10 year old named Chad, doing nothing but listening and drinking coffee. (Yes, I drank coffee at age 5.) One of my favorite places is at the feet of an old person. The wisdom and experience that our elders have is so valuable. I need to make this a regular event. Maybe I can add to my volunteering with this.
Maybe teaching elders how to blog. That is an idea! Then they won't only be sharing with me. HA! I'm digressing again from technology. Maybe it is just inevitable with me. I've grown up to the whir of the fan in a power supply and the jet engine sound of my hard drives.

I guess my main point with this post was to go back to people physically talking to each other. We need more of that. Yes yes.