Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Facilitating Joy (part 1)

I like to think of technology as a means of better facilitating a certain desired process. For example, a phone is a piece of technology that facilitates my being able to speak with people over long distances. My bicycle and my car are both methods that facilitate traveling over distances.There are two main upsides to thinking about technology this way, for me. For this post, I am just going to talk about the first one.

Viewing technology as part of process makes me realize that the individual piece of technology is not the goal. I remember dreaming of my first car in high school as I drove old, third-hand beaters or caught rides with friends for all my transportation. I now do have my own car that I like quite a lot, but I am not in love with it the way I was with the idea of having as a teenager. What changed?

My old view was that the car was going to make me happy because it took me places quickly and, often, entertainingly, as I sang along to the radio. My current perspective is that  going places makes me happy. I like being able to travel with ease to get food, see my friends, enjoy the outdoors, etc. I like all of those processes, and having a car makes them much easier for me in my current residence.

But, soon, I will be moving to Copenhagen, leaving my car behind, and buying a bicycle. I will be living a 15 minute bike ride from my school and with in walking distance from groceries and other life necessity. Do I feel like my happiness will be reduced by not having the car? No. My happiness will never be totally dependent on the car. Not having transportation at all would make it rather difficult to have access to the processes that make life enjoyable to me, but as long as I have some kind of transportation available, I will probably be able to find at least minimal access to those processes. Access to various technologies can greatly increase our ability and the ease with which we get to experience joy from our most important life processes.

So, how do we decide in our lives which technology to use? Cars or bicycles? E-mail or carrier pigeons? I think this view can help with deliberating what technology we want to be part of our lives, and my next post will be all about that.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Ring, ring...You calling me?

I recently had a fantastic visit to Bozeman, Montana. There are a number of joyous experiences to relate (one of the best being my friends pulling a great surprise on me), but, as usual, the thing that sticks with me are the great conversations.

Over the week I was there, we had a couple different conversations about phones and laptops that brought me back to my old desire to be rid of having a personal computer. Now that I work online, however, it is a lot less likely I will be able to, at least while living here. But, my planning juices are flowing, and I have decided to start part of my technology reduction plan.

I am moving to Copenhagen in less than two months, at which point I will either have to get a new cell phone there or choose to live without one. My current decision is to go without one, so I am starting while I am home with a gradual adjustment. I am going to start only turning my phone on twice a day. Once in the morning, once in the late afternoon. I will be able to get any messages and reply in a reasonable amount of time.

After I get into the swing of this, I will come back and write a bit more about the interplay of technology as improvement or as distraction. For now, I am going to shut my phone off, and find batteries for my old Elmo alarm clock.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Testing the Treadmill

Okay, this blog is actually a test of how well I can type while walking because I am trying to set up a makeshift treadmill desk at my parents' house. At any rate, it is a good excuse to do a bit of life updating here.

First of all: reason for the tread mill desk.
My new job is an online website research, writing, and editing gig. Which, by the way, I love so far. I love being able to travel this summer because I can work from every where, even if it does means that I am working most of the time I am traveling. It still gives me an opportunity to see all my friends before I go to grad school and still be putting some money in the bank.

As much as I love the job, I do not love sitting still for so long. My shoulders get tired as I slump over my laptop screen (bad posture, how do I quit you?). I also just get fidgety. I have a pretty good view out my window, and it can be nice in my room when the breeze is blowing, but it isn't really a great feeling to get up after siting at your desk for five hours straight.

Hence, treadmill desk. Currently I just have a wood plank laying across the plastic arms that stick out on my mom's treadmill, and it's working okay. I hope that I can at least do this a little bit each day so that I still get to stretch my legs outside of running.

Second news item: grad school!
Many hiccups have joined my foray into grad school life, but I think I got most of them ironed out this week. In the plus column, I have a place to live and a roommate that I am pretty psyched to meet. In the negative, I have to go to Chicago to do my residence permit application so that they can take my biometrics. What a hassle! Fortunately, I am already going to the Twin Cities in July for about five days, so I am going to swing down for a day during that and save myself a completely random trip to Chicago.

Otherwise, I have that great kind of nervous excitement about starting classes again, meeting new professors, and all the upcoming discussions for the next two years. It is one of those things where I willingly put myself into a stressful and, at times, trying environment, but I remain so thrilled with all the possibilities of what there is to come to know and know that I don't know. 

All my other life news is a bit more fragmented, but I'll write about it as things come up over the summer. Until then--

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Surveillance and Safety

As the various questions fly around the surveying of American citizens by their government, much of the focus has been on privacy and the trade-offs that we should expect or be willing to make for the sake of one or the other. But, another set of questions is lurking in the background about what role surveillance actually has in creating safety.

I was fortunate enough to visit Kilmainham Goal in Dublin, Ireland just a couple weeks ago with my mother. The museum raises a lot of thoughts about how we see safety and surveillance as hand in hand. Kilmainham is an excellent example of the panopticon theory in practice. Even though the practices of isolation, silence, and constant observation were documented to drive prisoners insane, these practices have all carried forward in various ways, not just in prisons, but our larger sense of what makes us safe.

One of the most thought provoking pieces of information I learned from the museum was impact of mug shots. Before taking pictures of all incoming prisoners became common practice, it was quite easy for criminals, upon release, to invent new identities. If they were repeat criminals, they would not be charged as such if they had made sufficiently strong aliases. Once the photographing began, however, it became much more difficult to disguise one's self sufficiently to avoid being punished more harshly for repeat offenses.

Contemporary technology is giving us many more tools expand on this principle. In a few weeks when I go to apply for a visa to live abroad, my finger prints will be recorded. To switch my driver's license to another state, I had to bring several forms of ID and proof of my new address. My social security number helps verify who I am to the world. In many ways, the record keeping of humanity has made life more organized, as well as making it easier to pick out people who are not playing by the rules that governments establish.

The question is, does any of that surveillance actually dissuade me from committing crimes? I do not doubt that the U.S. government has stopped many crimes through surveillance. But, does it do anything to change the character of the surveilled? If I think I need something badly enough or deserve something enough, will the fact that I might be seen in the appropriating of it going to stop me?

I think surveillance is part of life. I think it can be a very good part of life. I think it can be part of making us all safer. But, it will never provide the kind of safety that making the world a just place will. When we feed the hunger, take care of sick, visit those in prison, cloth the naked--these things make us safe. Justice is building a world that we all want to be a part of it: not because it is perfect or always comfortable, but because it cares enough to ask us where it hurts before we have to lash out in our pain.