More and more, there are automated transactions for everything. I rent my movies from a computer in a box. I check out my own groceries from a computer at Ralphs. I check out my own library books. I would rather go to the ATM than talk to a teller. At Jack in the Box I order my food and pay at a Kiosk instead of talking to a cashier. And when I look around me everyone is busy with their phones, not talking but texting instead. We don’t want to talk to anyone anymore, not even our friends. We would rather send messages to and receive messages from them so that we don’t ever have to hear their lousy voices.
Students are going to automated online colleges instead of sitting in classrooms. You are reading a blog instead of actively seeking out information or talking to another person. Do we hate eachother so much that we would rather communicate only through sterile technological buffers? Some old literary guy said “Hell is other people.”
Would we prefer the scenario of the Terminator movies? When SKYNET takes over nobody is going to be upset, it is going to be more like “Finally, what took you so long?”
