Great comment. I've been wondering when the pendulum will swing the other way in regards to our relationship with technology. You know, for us at least, it's Apple products which tend to be distracting us from "everything around us".
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Does Anyone Ever Stop and Realize What an Amazing Time We Live In? This Is the Future
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Great comment. I've been wondering when the pendulum will swing the other way in regards to our relationship with technology. You know, for us at least, it's Apple products which tend to be distracting us from "everything around us".
With respect, I don't agree. Socially, we have evolved skills for living in mass concentrations of people. Tens of millions of people in some cities. I believe humans needed to develop new skills before that could happen. Of course there are the badly adjusted people who resort to violence etc. But the vast majority of people living in the megatropolis centres are simply people who are coping.
I also believe that Darwin's theory applies to human societal change. Darwin is not about the survival of the strongest, but rather the fittest - as in the best able to cope in changing conditions. Human societies now cover a much much broader spectrum of beliefs, practices, and behaviours. Somewhere in the miss-mash of human societies across the globe are the behaviours that will survive a human near-mass-extinction event (if and when it occurs). That society will be the one humans will subsequently look at as having significantly advanced from the stone-age as it will incorporate the societal beliefs and behaviours that were needed to survive.
-- all imho only of course --
Thanks for your perspective. The point I was making is that our capacity to move forward technically seems to be greater than our ability to adapt and advance socially. I could be wrong.
Look at conflict around the world and the reasons for conflict. Are these not the same reasons we have always killed each other? Right now in the U.S. a vocal portion of the populace wants to move backwards socially. We will only progress socially when "we" becomes as important as "me".
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Thanks for your perspective. The point I was making is that our capacity to move forward technically seems to be greater than our ability to adapt and advance socially. I could be wrong.
I do agree that our technology is moving far far faster than our societal advances. I think you're a bit more pessimistic about the advances than I am. A glass half full/empty debate. I also think that you can't judge humanity simply by looking at the US. Right now the cutting edge of societal evolution is, imho, in Europre where they are trying to balance free-market vs socialism by experimenting with various forms of social democracies. Obviously not every European nation is getting it right, but there are some that are very much successful, and with the open borders of the EU the ideas and concepts that work well in one nation can be easily adopted by other nations that are striving to be as successful.
The American model that worked for half a century will either need to adapt - or will break. Academically, I would love to be around long enough to see which way it goes... but as a neighbour, I don't want to be around to see it break. But... perhaps Churchill's (perhaps mythological) observation that the 'Americans will always do the right thing - after they've tried every other option' still holds true.
What an awesome post. I'm only in my late 20s and even now, its amazing to see all the tech we have that I would never have imagined in the early 90s. Cell phones, tablets, cars that can almost drive for you! I always thought that was something I would only ever see in Star Trek, and now a lot of those things exist and can be used here! Its crazy!
Very funny. Hype vs reality. Not what I was expecting.
That's fine and dandy, but where is the flying cars I was foretold in my youth? I want my flying car.
You were born too late. They had them back in 1947!
Feast you eyes on the delectable Convair Model 118
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I would hope that you are either paid handsomely, or paid extra when you have to do support overnight.
Sadly, you just described my career as well, though I've been at it for 20 years, and 8 years at the same company. When I was single, I didn't mind because I wasn't really dating at that time. So I had the time to kill. Since then, in getting married and having children, I value my personal time more than anything. So having that interrupted by various calls for work after hours, especially when something interrupts time with the wife and children.. this is when technology gets in the way.
Not to mention when it interrupts sleep.
Luckily, my home business is starting to pick up, so if I keep at that to where it matches my salary at work, I no longer need the job. That way, I still have the money coming in, and I get my time back with family.. permanently.
Sadly, no. I get no extra pay for it.
Same with me. This is where having a salaried position really sucks. You don't get paid the overtime.
BL.
Sadly, no. I get no extra pay for it.
Sadly, you just described my career as well,.... this is when technology gets in the way.
Not to mention when it interrupts sleep.
...
Same with me. This is where having a salaried position really sucks. You don't get paid the overtime.
BL.
With respect to the both of you ... is this a problem with the system or with your negotiating skills?
Once-upon-a-time, in a career far far away - I did tech supper too. We agreed that the work week, however long the days, was covered by salary because in theory (if not in practice) I could schedule myself for a couple of short days to compensate for any long days. However, I got paid a nominal amount for being standby during the evenings or weekends it was my turn to be on call - and then a per-incident payment as well should the pager go off.
They didn't like it initially - but I insisted and we agreed on something.
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This was the days of DOS. I got really good at talking someone through how to rebuild their autoexec.bat file at 3am. That final 'ctrl-esc' (I think that was the key combo) was murder because the whole idea of holding two keys down simultaneously was a totally foreign concept. After I left that job it - literally - took me a few years before I stopped jumping at the sound of pager. I also once had the classic - urban myth-like - story of trying to figure out why the system wasn't turning on - check the cables - no, they can't see them - the power is out. When I took that story back to the office the next morning, nobody had ever heard like it before.
I think I'm going to go saddle up the hover car now...
I work for a local unit of government; there is no negotiating. When being paid with tax dollars, they give you what they decide to give you. Plus, we're in a very economically depressed part of the state where the tax base is very low as well.
Same with me. This is where having a salaried position really sucks. You don't get paid the overtime.
Yep. I feel really bad for a lot of salaried people. Their employers take so much advantage of the fact that they can work a bunch of overtime for nothing extra in compensation. And because so many people can't afford to leave their jobs, they dutifully go along with it.
I am happy that unless specifically otherwise agreed upon, overtime is paid after a certain number of hours each day anywhere I work.
Fair enough... And I do have sympathy. Paid or unpaid... being on-call is not a lot of fun.
I was just about to give you a gentle tease about how much better it would be if you lived across the water in socialist Canada... but I just looked up the Ontario labour laws... and Information Technology Professionals are exempt from Ontario labour laws that protect workers for, well, basically anything to do with how long you can work daily, when you work, how often you get breaks... etc. etc. Sucks. Now I have a lot more sympathy for you and your colleagues. Seriously.