By Peter Cochrane, 20 January 2006 16:15
COMMENT
Written and edited in a coffee shop in Woodbridge, Suffolk UK. Dispatched from my home via wi-fi and optical fibre.
One inherent role of all parents seems to be a continuing concern about the education, skill and knowledge of their offspring. Throughout history the old have bemoaned the young and as a teenager I can remember being castigated for using a slide rule instead of log tables. The modern equivalent of this seems to be using a pocket calculator rather than mental arithmetic. Did it, or does it, really matter?
Year-on-year society and technology change, as does education and understanding. What mattered yesterday becomes worthless today. Having had four children, and working with a lot of young people, I am convinced (more or less) that history is correct. She sees it for what it is - progress. But recently all my children left home and I have lost one of my key barometers of society. So I have taken to observing (even more) the activities of friends' families and what they do with technology. Every age range of offspring sees and uses new technologies. The oldest of mine (now 32) saw the arrival of colour TV and VHS, whilst the youngest (now 18) has only seen and experienced these technologies in use. So what of today's youngsters, what do they see? One eight-year-old I came across has never seen a computer connected to anything other than a power outlet when charging. He lives in a wi-fi environment at home and at school. But it gets better. His father works for an internet company and has a free hand to experiment. His car has a wi-fi hub wired to a 3G terminal so on the move there is a continual connection to the internet. This boy wanders from house to car with an unbroken service, lives a continually connected life unencumbered by the need to connect and all that entails. Now here's the bummer... He has no real concept of a network, and he seems to have no concept of being connected in the same way I do. This realisation caused me to think through my perceptions. All my life I have been involved in wiring things, connecting components, boxes and devices to one another. Better still, I worked in a TV repair shop, and for a phone company as a lineman. I have also wired computer networks in buildings and racks. So I think I know what a network is, and have a strong perception of being connected. But how will this work for a new 'what's a network?' generation? How will they cope and deal with the world 20 or 30 years from now? Worrying? Perhaps! But how many people understand how an internal combustion engine, electric motor, refrigerator, radio, TV, PC etc work today? Not many! And the world keeps turning, we keep progressing and things keep working. I remember when the TV remote was connected to the set by wire. What a weird concept, eh, can you imagine?
Comments
There are 14 comments. Join the discussion
1. Richard
Do children still learn logs?
I have engineering and financial books which contain pages of log, trig, engineering and ready reckoner tables.
As a school punishment, we had to learn log and trig tables by heart.
At university, we were expected to know common values: Slide rules were compulsory, (the still expensive) electronic calculators were banned.
In industry, I had to convert log and trig values into binary for use in an early electronic device.
Is all this hard earned learning now completely obsolete?
Presumably, children now learn only to use calculators and few engineers or scientists would dream of working without their PCs and calculators?
2. Jon Pennycook
I think I remember that in my maths exams, I was offered log tables if I didn't have a calculator.
3. Rob Garner
I think log's to the base 10 have probably gone the way of the dodo, I cant think of anywhere these are need. Log's to the natural base are still very much important but only with a calculator not in the form of tables.
4. Simon
"... how many people understand how an internal combustion engine, electric motor, refrigerator, radio, TV, PC etc work today? Not many!"
I do, but them now heading into that age when "nostalgia just isn't what it used to be" ! Oh, and I thought the original remote control was a suitable length of bamboo cane.
I find it interesting watching things like Star Trek - not so much the original, but the follow ons with Captains Janeway and Picard. It seems every senior officer has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all sorts of stuff - yet the way society seems to be heading, their knowledge should extend further than the top-side of the consoles.
It could be fun to make a spoof version - where everyone stands around "err"ing and "umm"ing once the comms link goes down.
5. anonymous
We now live on such a pyramid of technology that, heaven forbid, if some of the predictions about the effects of global warming come true and our technology base collapses there will be very few people in the rich first world who will have any clue at all as to how to survive. ON the other hand bushmen will be almost totally unaffected!
6. Anthony Guter
As to TV remotes wired to the set, I had a shock watching The Avengers last week on BBC4. There was Mrs. Peel proudly demonstrating her wired remote control. I had to look twice before I even realised what it was.
7. Justin Brooks
I remember a character in Mary Renaults's book Last of the Wine (set in Ancient Greece) lamenting the fact that this new-fangled writing was destroying his apprentice's ability to memorize epic poems . . . .
8. Hugh Davenport
Peter.....are you, in your article "Kids today", pointing out how wonderful it is for an 8 year old child to live a life "continually connected"......."wandering from house to car with an unbroken service". Rather than having no "real concept of a network"..........I suspect he has no real concept of a face-to-face discussion unencumbered by technology or how to participate in playground games.
I would be interested in your views.
Cheers, Hugh.
PS. Typed up at my work desk on a traditional network connected computer (if you're interested?)
9. peter cochrane
Going back to bushmen is only an option for a few. We have had an irreversible reliance on technology ever since we got past about 3M people in the UK and about 20M in the USA. Witout technology Bns would die. So will it all go badly wrong? Personally I don't think so - unless that is the religious right and politically insane plunge us back into a new dark age - which is always a possibility. You are certainly right about the price though!
Peter
10. peter cochrane
Now that would be like real life and not fiction!
Peter
11. Peter Cochrane
Log base 10 are quite handy for plotting some graphs and in measurement instrumentation - so not completely dead!
Peter
12. peter cochrane
Well, just like my kids before him this one goes to cub scouts, swimming lessons, boating etc and has a range of hobbies. And like many of his kind he has a worldwide network of friends. All computers and the net have done is amplify all the life possibilities and enable new skills beyond the imagination of most adults and teachers.
He could have been a couch potato in front of a TV, or been frozen by a library, but instead he is engaged and lively - with the makings of a good citizen and future contributor to society.
Peter
13. Peter Cochrane
I used to do machine code programming, and now everyone uses high level languages. But then again I don't make a very good bow and arrow. We all stand on the shoulders of the generations tha went before us....and stuff gets discarded on the way....Peter
14. peter cochrane
Yep - it seems the role of the old to lament the coming of the new...but the world keeps spinning and life just gets better and better...so it seems to work...Peter