Yep, that’s what I hear.

Lookee here. I’m a technology guy; I had a career in electronics and technology. I was fresh out of college at the advent of the cell phone. I worked in two-way communications and the micro-circuitry that paved the way for so much here today. I worked in the semiconductor industry that made even much more miniaturization possible. I was there at the advent of the software industry (though my company managed to miss the boat but that’s a story for another millennium). I lived through the days when computers moved permanently into the workplace and then on through homes and businesses and on to ubiquity. I was there then- really just a bit over 30 years ago- and I am here now still. Maybe barely. And I am not alone but someday soon the folks who understood the why for why such advances were pursued will no longer be. Their life forces will have been deleted and the knowledge that went with will have gone with yet again. Doubtful anyone will notice or much less care.

And then what?

Oh, don’t fret on so old man. We got this.

Do you really?

Do you know how a computer works and do you know that it is (was) intended to solve problems so that we can focus, as human figure-it-out machines, on what might be next?

Do you know that a cell phone was meant to be used to un-tether us from the dark confines of our caves; to be used as a mobile (that is spelled m-o-b-i-l-e) telephone. Data terminals were just that. Now it’s just back to the caves.

Do you know that televisions were used as family entertainment? There was only one and we all gathered around it…as a family. A lot less was personal and, to me, beautifully so.

Do you know that if you said (that is as in actual speech) something to someone in confidence that you had a reasonable chance it would be kept so? That all you shared might not be there on a permanent scroll to be viewed as will through all eternity by anyone with even a small desire to know?

Or that we used to say good morning and good night to one another?

Or that Christmas gifts took thought and love? And inspired very nice thank-you notes and cards delivered by hand or through the postal hardware services..

And that your every movement was not likely to be captured on an 8mm? Those were reserved for special occasion and often were not encumbered with actual sound or words to spoil the moving pictures. Grainy, maybe, but great nevertheless.

Did you know that we used to watch and listen and appreciate events? Phones and tablets were not used to reserve the moment for later on- maybe a picture or two with friends- to share on-line with the socialsphere. How can a moment be enjoyed as a moment if you’re so damn busy trying to preserve it for later on? That 32GB SD card might as well just do away with the need for our own internal memory.

Did you know that we used to actually have private thoughts and enjoyed them and even our meals without sending out the details to all of our good social linkages?

No my friends, something deep and drastic has happened and you know it as well as I do- that is if you remember before Totaltronics came along.

But after we have been deleted what then? Where will things go from there?

I never thought I would agree with those doomsayers- after all I was a learned man of technology. And what we have created we cannot now destroy.

At least not before it destroys us.