Seriously scary stuff

When Crème de la Crime was starting out, one of our first titles was set a few decades in the future: a time when everyone had access to computers, the way a recent British government planned to arrange things before the world ran out of money. More than that – it was impossible to escape from technology, since every baby was fitted with an unremovable tracking device shortly after birth. No ducking the taxman or living under the radar; everyone was on record.

 

That was six years ago. Even then, in the real world people took computers for granted, and not owning a mobile phone was considered a little unusual. But the most up to date computers only had about a gigabyte of memory; now we’re moving into terabytes. Mobile phones doubled as cameras, but only the really, really expensive ones checked e-mail, ordered your groceries and gave you directions to the nearest Chinese restaurant; now it’s a struggle to find one without the capacity to run a small country.

 

E-readers were still a half-formed idea in some techie genius’s mind, and marketing gurus hadn’t got a sniff of the idea’s potential. In fact, that was the case just two years ago, never mind six. Now Amazon are claiming that more people buy eBooks than the real thing, and the forecast is for the death of printed books within two, or five, or ten years.

 

For a dyed-in-the-wool technophobe like me, this is seriously scary stuff. It’s all moving much too fast, and everything – not to mention everyone – is much too available. Some one said to me the other day, when they’d recovered from the shock of learning that I didn’t have a mobile number to give them, ‘How on earth do you manage when you’re out of the office? Or on holiday?’ The answer was exactly the same as I’ve always managed – I have voicemail and e-mail, which I pick up when I get back; and when I’m on holiday I’m on holiday for goodness sake! That used to mean out of touch, out of reach, winding down, recharging – not at the other end of the phone whenever there’s a query.

 

And it’s not just people who are permanently on call. I’m constantly amazed at the stuff that’s available on the internet – some of it stuff that the people involved would really prefer had sunk into obscurity. Some celebrities can’t sneeze without news of double pneumonia hurtling round the world. (This, of course, is the point at which I decide whether or not to illustrate my point with some innocent party’s embarrassing moment, posted on Wikipedia or another easily accessed site for posterity. I think I’ll pass; if you want to find those moments, go look –  there must be plenty of them  if I know they’re out there.)

 

I think it’s time someone asked if all this progress is necessarily a good thing. People are working longer hours, growing more stressed, never getting a chance to switch off. The jury’s still out on the damage electronic stuff does to our eyes/brains/fingers/spines. It’s only gadgetry, after all, and it really isn’t compulsory to be the first guy in the office to own the newest, latest, shiniest development.

 

OK, I know I’m way behind the times, a Luddite, a reactionary – but do you think we could stop chasing the next big thing for a moment? Life may have been slower a few years ago, but I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing.

Comments

[Clothdragon]

Ebooks have outsold Hardcovers. I've always believed paperbacks also sold better than hardcovers. I've never checked to see if I was right on that or looked for statistics, but the original news source specified hardcovers as the thing being outsold. It didn't surprise me because I'd rather read on an ebook than a hardcover. I'd rather read an ebook on my even larger, even clunkier laptop than a hardcover.

Thankfully, most of the books I like come in paperback sooner or later so I haven't had to go buy an ereader yet, but I do think the resulting panic from that news is a little overblown. Of course books on a hand-sized 1/2 pound clicky machine outsold huge heavy cumbersome hardcovers. Why? Hardcovers might look pretty on the shelf, but, for reading a book, almost any other format is easier to hold.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't understand the panic. And it's not just you wanting things to slow down -- there does seem to be a panic going around. But I wonder... why don't they just stop printing hardcover? Or start off with paperback in most everything and switch to hardcover if there seems to be a big demand? Why take the news that electronic outsold one format of paper and decide that has to mean print is dead? Aren't there other places to go with that information? Maybe try to use it to brainstorm ways to save an industry that might be slipping?

Well, those are my frustrations with this whole thing. (I do have a cellphone, but not a fancy one. Mine is just a phone though every now and then I'm tempted to trade it in for one that could also be an ereader. :)

[Roy Innes]

Amazing how the world turns. Remember "Technocracy" way back and the fear it induced; the machine replacing the worker? Now we have devices that replace the human brain. Will the time come when some software genius creates a program that writes crime fiction all by itself? After all, it has been said that there are no new plots; only variables of the old, and what handles variables with blinding efficiency these days? Right, and transmits the product directly to a Kindle.

[donna-glaser@hotmail.com]

I've been asking myself "whatever happened to long, lazy summer days?" I have grade school kids and the summer past by in a frantic scramble of activities--a far cry from the respite given when I was young. So I agree with you, at least in my personal/family life. I would like it to slow down. I would like it to simplify.
But thinking of applying that philosohpy to my writing/business side of life scares me. I feel like I would be left behind, or worse, never noticed. I guess it depends on one's goals. I don't think I can meet mine without piling on the technology bandwagon.

[Lynne Patrick]

Roy, you capture the spirit of what I'm saying with great precision. If that day comes, it will be the day I bow out.

[Lynne Patrick]

I suppose when we Luddites really start worrying is when eBooks outsell paperbacks - and I'm in no hurry for that!