Got this from Gary Renshaw, by e-mail. Replied I could, indeed, see Reetions in the picture if you substituted "arbiter administration" for "cell phone". :-)

On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:03:33 -0700, Gary Renshaw wrote:
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>
> I thought of the Reetians the other day when I ran into this
> example of over-domestication.  Apparently I'm hopelessly retro
> because I wear a watch.  NOBODY wears watches any more because you
> have a cell phone. And heaven forbid that you should have to
> actually flip the lid to see the time. You MUST have a display on
> the outside or it's just too much trouble.
>
> I asked what people do when they are outside of cell range and I
> got a deer-in-the-headlights look.  Outside cell range?  Am I mad??
> What would one do on a camping trip if one couldn't text one's
> friends?
>
> I'm reminded of Asimov's story about personal computing being so
> pervasive that nobody can do even simple arithmetic any more.  One
> fellow discovers this lost art and the military get all happy
> because now they can put people inside missiles instead of risking
> valuable electronics.
>
> TTFN,
> Gary

posted by Lynda at 20:29   comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments