51 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
51 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
DON'T TAKE COMPUTERS FOR GRANTED
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Palo Alto, California - Not an hour goes by, it seems, without some mention
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of computers. Ever wonder what it would be like living through a revolution?
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Now you know. There's nary a nitch in which to hide that would get you away
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from computer talk, computer news, rumors or sales pitches -- not to mention
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the hard and/or soft wares which, increasingly, stare you in the face during
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some portion of almost every day.
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Most people withstand this inundation pretty well. You can ignore most of
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it, selectively listen to some of it and even assiduously pay attention to
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whatever kind of computer flak you desire. Whenever it was that whoever it was
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declared the "Computer Revolution," he or she sure knew what he or she was
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declaring.
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You just can't take computers for granted.
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Which, by the way, is exactly what I hope to be able to do at some point in
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my lifetime -- take computers for granted.
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Consider some of the things we already take for granted if you want to have a
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taste of what life will be like for our descendants...
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* Political Freedom. Do you hear much talk about this during odd-numbered
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years? Nooooooo. Why? We take it for granted, of course! Political freedom
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in the U.S. is like getting a letter from your college alumni association.
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You ignore it unless you have some extra cash.
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* Family life. Who doesn't have a family to take for granted? Okay, even an
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extended family. There's always some aspect of family life you can grant,
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accept and ignore, whether it's your mother-in-law or that pesky second cousin
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from Areola, New York.
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* Television. The only time you don't take TV for granted is when you
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realize the set you have is over ten years old and it goes dead on you in the
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middle of "The Cosby Show."
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Won't it be a fine day when, in the far distant future, computers can be
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added to the list of things accepted without mention? (I could have written
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"taken for granted" here, but I've already used the phrase 39 times. See? I'm
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looking out for you!)
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By the time you-know-what happens, computers will be so much a part of
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everything, so user-friendly and cooperative there'll be no choice about
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ignoring them. They'll be like refrigerators or toasters except in quantity.
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Like TV, except in quality. Like political freedom, except in Central America
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or the U.S.S.R.
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And, by that time, we will be ho-humming them from little urns in marble
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buildings or deep space.
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