Analog or Digital?
Every year, our local churches have a seminar on the subject of religious freedom in Japan. It is held on Constitution Day, Feb. 11. I have become increasingly interested in this subject as the years go by. But the paper that got my attention this year was one on theory of education, and the theme was "analog vs. digital".
If you've read this far maybe I can hold you to the end.
Do any of you remember thermometers that were glass tubes with mercury in them? I guess it hasn't been THAT long. You could sit there and watch the little siver line move as your body heat warmed the mercury and made it expand and go up the tube. The process was there, visible in time and space. This is an analog thermometer. Now we have digital thermometers. They do take a few seconds, but then a number appears on the screen, and you have your data. The process is invisible, and a mystery to most observers. But, so what? The data is what you want; who needs the process?
The hands of analog clocks revolve smoothly through 360 degrees. They are actuated (on old clocks) by gears you can see. The numbers on digital clocks jump; the process is hidden in a tiny silicon chip, invisible and mysterious to the user. But, they know what time it is, so what's the difference?
Here is product without process. It is a tremendous technical advance in many fields, and I am glad to live in an age which can deliver information so efficiently. The crunch comes when digital completely replaces analog in everyone's conciousness. A parallel can be drawn, I think, in the attitude of many today. They want product, they are not interested in process. This was brought home to me by the illustration on the back of the November 2003 Readers Digest ( I have omniverous reading habits), done by C.F.Payne. A family is busy pulling a complete Thanksgiving dinner out of bags- no process of preparation; they can go straight to the meal.
They exchanged cash for process. Someone invisible to them produced the product. This is repeated endlessly in contemporary life; so much so that many are now capable only of doing their job (a very small part of the process of creating something for other's consumption), and have never had the experience of carrying through a process fully themselves to produce a product. In short, their idea of "work" is very narrow. Their lives are buried under a pile of instant products, but their level of participation (and their experience of anticipation) are not even on the chart. They work out of sight of their families, and the only shared experience is consumption. Is this what leads to a feeling of detachment, and a low level of satisfaction in life?
I remember shelling peas with my sisters- bushel baskets of peas (a bushel is A LOT- especially when you are shelling). We sat in the cool back kitchen in July preparing them for freezing, and ate the peas as a family throughout the fall and winter. Now we just buy them. It really is a radically different lifestyle.
Analog and digital. Everything in nature is analog- accomplished over time, as an ongoing process, requiring time and effort to produce an anticipated result. Do not we all need a little analog in our lives?
If you've read this far maybe I can hold you to the end.
Do any of you remember thermometers that were glass tubes with mercury in them? I guess it hasn't been THAT long. You could sit there and watch the little siver line move as your body heat warmed the mercury and made it expand and go up the tube. The process was there, visible in time and space. This is an analog thermometer. Now we have digital thermometers. They do take a few seconds, but then a number appears on the screen, and you have your data. The process is invisible, and a mystery to most observers. But, so what? The data is what you want; who needs the process?
The hands of analog clocks revolve smoothly through 360 degrees. They are actuated (on old clocks) by gears you can see. The numbers on digital clocks jump; the process is hidden in a tiny silicon chip, invisible and mysterious to the user. But, they know what time it is, so what's the difference?
Here is product without process. It is a tremendous technical advance in many fields, and I am glad to live in an age which can deliver information so efficiently. The crunch comes when digital completely replaces analog in everyone's conciousness. A parallel can be drawn, I think, in the attitude of many today. They want product, they are not interested in process. This was brought home to me by the illustration on the back of the November 2003 Readers Digest ( I have omniverous reading habits), done by C.F.Payne. A family is busy pulling a complete Thanksgiving dinner out of bags- no process of preparation; they can go straight to the meal.
They exchanged cash for process. Someone invisible to them produced the product. This is repeated endlessly in contemporary life; so much so that many are now capable only of doing their job (a very small part of the process of creating something for other's consumption), and have never had the experience of carrying through a process fully themselves to produce a product. In short, their idea of "work" is very narrow. Their lives are buried under a pile of instant products, but their level of participation (and their experience of anticipation) are not even on the chart. They work out of sight of their families, and the only shared experience is consumption. Is this what leads to a feeling of detachment, and a low level of satisfaction in life?
I remember shelling peas with my sisters- bushel baskets of peas (a bushel is A LOT- especially when you are shelling). We sat in the cool back kitchen in July preparing them for freezing, and ate the peas as a family throughout the fall and winter. Now we just buy them. It really is a radically different lifestyle.
Analog and digital. Everything in nature is analog- accomplished over time, as an ongoing process, requiring time and effort to produce an anticipated result. Do not we all need a little analog in our lives?
posted by John Elliot | 10:41 PM
2 Comments:
It took a lot of work for me to jump to a level of digital competency and it's a scarry thought to think that someday young people might have to work very hard to jump the other way, to analogous competency. I guess that's already the reality for some. I sometimes think of how nice it would be to abandon the digital all together, but my lust for cell phones and laptops is too powerful at this point in my life.
Thanks for the comment, Steve. Actually, that is just what I was thinking myself. It's sad to think that many people don't even know the satisfaction of a job well done- by oneself.
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