NIGHTMARISH THOUGHTS

NIGHTMARISH THOUGHTS Hello all, I interrupt the great back-to-school flow of these blogs to deliver a semi-personal, semi-existential rant. I am THIS close to ordering an e-book reader (the brand of which I will not specify but you should have an idea.) And then I dwell on the fact that you can soon checkout books from your public library via said e-book reader. First I’m like HEY! That’s great! And then I remember, the public library IS MY NO.1 MOST FAVORITEST THING ABOUT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Its an uniquely American institution.   At a time when budget cuts across the nation are slashing public libraries’ staff, programs, hours-of-operation, Do I really want to help undermine the value of the physical public library an air-conditioned, wifi-ed, water-fountained, educated, cultured safe haven? All of these consequences are fast-forwarding through my head like a scary movie, rolling like a fireball towards Fahrenheit 451. On the flipside, said e-book reader will be so convenient and I know I will love it. At this point, I am really scared of technology. It’s chasing away so many, so many things for convenience, efficiency, and power. And that’s also one thing you can’t change about technology: it won’t ever stop. You can stand back, observe but eventually fall behind and become obsolete like a floppy disk. I can hold my reservations about said e-book reader and put off buying it, but it won’t stop the Kindle 3, 4, 5, Nook Color, Metallic, Convertible, or whatever from coming out. It can only keep going, or we wouldn’t be where we are today. IN CONCLUSION: I wish I had a conclusion to this rant. And here I am, going back to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in less than 2 weeks. What tradition-bending innovations will arise in the upcoming year?? brb, figuring out life.