Synthetic

I want things to be real. I much prefer to stir my pots with a wooden spoon than with a plastic one. I think things should appear as they are, without pretence, just as I think we should. I guess it's not very controversial to prefer woolen sweaters to acrylic ones, but for me, this is more than mere itching and electrostatic discharge... There is something profound in nature, something that goes far beyond our comprahension, and I want to surround myself with that, and not only with industrial products.

In a way it might seem like a contradiction to dislike artificial things and still be such a fan of computers... I guess I could discuss that for a long while, but I somehow feel that there are good things in our history and in nature that we risk loosing if we aren't careful, and at the same time, I think the future might bring a lot of good things as well, and we shouldn't be afraid of change, but we should be sceptical. Something isn't automatically good because it's new... That sounds obvious, but when I hear some people talk about where progress and development will lead us, I realize that this needs to be said...

I recently visited Ericsson Media Lab on the web, and while they had some interesting ideas (although I think I've heard it before both here and there ;-) they gave the impression that the office of tomorrow would be good at imitating other things we know, but still have most of the shortcomings of the present world. Why can't computers just be computers, and be good at that? They somehow reminded me of Dr Who or StarTrek. Instead of using the unique qualities of computers and networks, it seems they are trying to make them into papers and books that stop functioning when they get wet or cold.

They even describe how a documents on the 'desktop' could be 'dragged' into handheld terminals 'by gestures' so that you can bring them to presentations or continue to work outdoors.. Sigh! Have they never used anything but Windoze or Macintoy? What about remote access and automatic replication of databases. The amazing things with computers is that they can do a lot of work without being explicitly told to do it at that very moment. Computers can be more than reactive tools that requires constant instructions. Why would I want this silly gadget if it can't help me unless I remember to bring my documents! Oh well, who am I to complain about brainstorming. I don't like being contradicted when I spew out ideas hoping that a percent or so might bear fruit. Something good might come out of it.

Why Green?