-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Adolfo,
On Sunday, November 30, 2003, at 5:44:31 AM PST, you wrote: > What I am trying to say is that people who feel that their passion > is hacking or tweaking software and hardware may feel that they have > a richer life than others who don't do it. Do lawyers have a richer > life than engineers and physicians? It is not what you do but how > you feel about. Yes...I understand, appreciate, and agree with your point Adolfo. I certainly wasn't trying to say that others *should* have passions similar to mine, or making any sort of value judgement about other people's passions...even if those passions *were* to sit in front of a computer much of the day. I also agree that what we spend our time doing does not, at least entirely, define *who* we are...though what we choose to spend our time with, hopefully, is indeed a reflection of who we are (otherwise, we wouldn't really be living "our" lives, would we?). However...read on... > All those things that make people more productive, leaving them more > time to enjoy their passions or pastimes, have to be thanked to > hackers and tweakers. Well, let's step back a bit and think about this interesting statement of yours... When desktop computers were first coming into wider usage, most people were saying what a great savings of paper and time these machines represented for our lives, but as we now know, the use of paper products has multiplied severalfold, and we spend much more of our lives sitting in front of computers in place of doing other things. When you mention the computer allowing us more time to enjoy our passions and pastimes, I have to wonder instead how spending time in front of computers has *become* many people's passion/pastime, and has in fact *replaced* the time formerly spent pursuing more "active" passions and pastimes in the "real world" as opposed to the "virtual" world (yes, there is reality in cyber-space, but it's of a different sort). People really into baseball, for example, can spend hours *sitting* in front of a video screen not so many inches from their face gathering all the succulent baseball statistics their eyes and minds can absorb, yet at the end of the day, they've spent a lot less time outdoors either watching or playing the actual game themselves! In this sense, as far as one's general health and "sense/experience of the world" goes, there's little difference between sitting in front of a television or sitting in front of a computer (perhaps even worse with the computer in one sense, because one's eyes are so close to a computer monitor for such prolonged periods, whereas a television is usually at least a bit further from one's eyes). I'm old enough to have noted that more people seem to be wearing glasses and contacts earlier on in life, and I'm pretty sure that computer usage could have something to do with this, considering the amount of time so many people spend with their eyes quite close to these video screens. Back before there were tools for artificial music reproduction, more people per family actually sang played musical instruments together, and went to more live concerts to satisfy their personal passions for music. With the advent of machines that could bring the recorded sound of a symphony into one's living room, people became, in general, much less personally *active* in their involvement with music. Before movies and television, going to the theatre for dramatic entertainment was much more common, as were live theatres themselves. I'm certainly not saying that computers, televisions, and home stereos are "evil" in and of themselves, but I am pondering the new "balance" of time/energies they've introduced into our lives, and wondering about the impact *passion for these things* has changed the way we live...often from more "active" pursuits to a more "passive" experience of life...becoming a bit more of a "spectator" than a participant in so many ways. > In general, I dare to say, our lifestyle is the product of people > whose passion was not related at all to the other side of the > window. Yes, and I'm not so sure that all "lifestyle" changes have been entirely positive (see small rant just above :-)). > Melissa, if there is something in my writing that may sound rude or > harsh, blame it on my english. I really didn't mean it. I quite enjoyed reading your comments, and didn't feel they were in any way harsh. :-) - -- Melissa PGP public keys: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]&Body=Please%20send%20keys -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iD8DBQE/yrmPjVbXUvsE8ukRAug3AJ45dz+z/jo4KuAsn1vjBkkhmTEkMACfWBnI lGPI9xgEatEE/h1kW4qbCsU= =H+zJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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