I used to keep up with computers and software and cameras. Partly just techie interest, partly it was to do with my work. I stopped deeply following the technological world some time back. Now I’m several years behind and completely unsure about what works and what doesn’t. I stepped off the technology bus, just for a while because I didn’t need to be on that particular journey at that moment. Now I’ve lost my seat and my ticket is no longer valid.

That doesn’t mean I’m uninterested, or a Luddite. I am fairly happy, to an extent, to be out of the loop. I’ve done my stint just behind the bleeding edge. The problem is the rest of the world keeps on moving, iterating, upgrading, changing, not always for the better. While my stuff continues to work, I’m okay. If something critical gets broken – not by me – then I’m stuffed!

Yes, I could upgrade to a new Mac, but so much other stuff will then likely break. Do I keep the old Mac to run legacy hardware and software? Do I really need or want to maintain two systems? Apart from being left behind and no longer officially supported, my existing Mac is perfectly fine. There’s little imperative to upgrade to something new and shiny. My DSLR is 12 years old now, but still perfectly adequate for my needs. I have an older iPad, and I’ve just invested in a three-year-old iPhone. 

And that’s just local hardware. The connected world is another matter.

The online world now seems to be moving so fast that there’s no time to keep up with the latest trends. Social media encourages arguments and disagreements, and spreading disinformation. TikTok (sorry, not my cup of tea) appears to be filled with things a few seconds long. YouTube encourages makers to produce “shorts” of less than a minute, sub-clips of clips if you like. There’s no depth to anything. So many people are seemingly skating across the surface of everything, not absorbing anything, becoming more polarised and isolated in their own little worlds. 

This can’t end well. There’s no feeling of deep time. It’s all here, now, and gone, the space and momentary attention taken by something else again.

Some progress is good. In my line of work (ho-ho!) 3D design and print is revolutionising modelmaking. Elsewhere, though, I’m still unsure and rather unsettled about large language models – the so-called AI revolution which is really machine learning through stealing other peoples’ stuff, being artificial but certainly not intelligent. Funnily enough, they appear to be breaking themselves almost as quickly as they appeared on the scene, having almost instantly polluted the well from which they draw their content with their own drivel. Personally, I want to know if I’m about to interact with such a beast, and have the option to choose otherwise. 

Finally, I really definitely do not need the Internet of Things. Neither my household appliances, my car, nor my toilet, need to talk to anything else via the internet, thank you very much. Leave that to the computing devices – of which I have several.