Seductive Technology

New technology is so seductive. This week I was persuaded that it would be a wonderful experience to go and watch Gravity - the recently released film about space exploration - in IMAX 3D. I should have known better. The film is a triumph of presentation over content: the special effects are amazing but the story is not at all credible, the schmaltz factor is high and the dialogue comes straight out of the Hollywood Blockbuster Writers’ Training Manual. Those of you who may still be interested are advised to see it in IMAX 3D in order to get some sort of return on your investment. When it ended I had just enough time (skipping the credits) to hoof across town for a one-off showing of the classic Sunset Boulevard. I had hoped to find solace in old-style technology but, unfortunately for me, it was sold out:  such is the demand for nostalgia.

 

But technology and nostalgia can make good bed-fellows - as this week's good-news story illustrates. An old pal, last seen in 1974, tracked me down by asking Google if it had seen me around lately. It (Google) was able to trace the limited online information about me and point him in the right direction. Now we are back in touch and planning to drink beer together. These reunions - or continuations as I prefer to think of them - can be very satisfying. They allow us to reignite relationships that were extinguished, either by circumstances or carelessness. Another friend I am reconnected with in this way has contributed much to the back-story of my life with his own memories and connections. We share so many cultural markers (although his enthusiasm for The Grateful Dead is not one of them) that picking up where we left off has come naturally.

 

Reconnecting with old friends in the days before the internet, unless it happened by chance, was painstaking and time-consuming. Although this is no longer the case, there is possibly a downside to the ease with which it may now be accomplished: unwanted solicitation. Given that no effort is required, some people may now type your name into a search engine simply out of curiosity and, when they get a result, make inappropriate or unwanted contact. They may be someone you would rather not remember because you treated them badly; or someone you "went off" because they treated you badly; or someone who imagined they had a close relationship with you but for whom you never cared; or someone who is just too dangerous or nasty to be around. In such cases we may not thank technology for being so accessible.
 

Still, we can use our human sensitivities to shield us from these situations - or we can rely on the development of sophisticated screening software: law-enforcement authorities already monitor much of the traffic, and I hear that the police are developing a specialised search engine called Whodunnit? to harness the power of electronic social connectivity to the purpose of crime-busting.

 

Technology in itself is less interesting than its interplay with life on Earth - and beyond. The creators of Gravity must be given credit for the fact that, for all the digital trickery at their disposal, they understood the need to tell a human story with it. Technology must be made to serve. Which is why, this week, I took down the halogen spotlights installed in our bathroom back when they were all the rage. They have been casting their harsh, unflattering glare for too long. In their place is now an old-style glass globe which diffuses light in a way which is soothing to one's eyes - and reassuring to one's vanity.