My wife recently pointed me to this video clip on YouTube — an excerpt from a full-length Korean documentary — which depicts a mother venturing into virtual reality to interact with the beloved daughter that she had lost to leukemia. This is truly an episode of Black Mirror brought to life. It reminds me, in […]
technology
Existential musings on Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
As a child I was fascinated by the story of Amelia Earhart: courageous, daring, and disappearing somewhere over the vastness of the Pacific in 1937, never to be seen again. Mystery, romance, intrigue, danger, the story had it all. A mystery it may be, but the outcome is hardly surprising: Earhart was piloting a small […]
A wake-up call to the speed of change
I came home the other day to discover a new yellow phone book had been left on my front step. Immediately it went into the recycling bin. Who uses phone books anymore? Not me. The really interesting thing is not simply that technology is advancing and the world is changing at such a ferocious pace, but […]
Lament for the Video Store
In the early twentieth century well meaning missionaries introduced the steel axe to the Yir Yoront aboriginal society of Queensland, Australia. And why not? The steel axe was a far superior piece of technology and would greatly improve life for the Yir Yoront. Or so the missionaries thought. Unfortunately the stone axe’s role in Yir Yoront […]
