Release the Kraken

[HenryC]

I was looking through my files today and ran into this, a post I made to another web forum I belong to .  I wrote it about a year or two ago, but it occurred to me you guys might be interested in commenting on it.

A meeting with Medusa

There was an interesting show on the Discovery Channel tonight. They've been advertising it all day, and we couldn't wait to see it. Some scientists on a research ship off the coast of Japan have caught the first known film footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat. Parts of them have been found washed ashore, and half-digested carcasses have been retrieved from the stomachs of dead whales. Occasionally, rotted corpses have been found floating at sea, or tangled up in fishermen's nets. But this is the first time we've seen an intact, living specimen, filmed in color from a small research submarine. It is absolutely fabulous.

The show lasted two hours. It contained photographs of many dead specimens that have been recovered, as well as animations of what the creature must look like in its natural habitat. The history and lore of what little is known about these creatures was covered pretty well, too, with ancient drawings of big squid attacking old-timey sailing ships and gobbling up sailors. Film was also showed of similar (but much smaller!) species of squid. There were also interviews with the scientists involved in the hunt, and lots of footage of them living and working on their ship. The show was fascinating, and we all sat down and watched.

My ten year old step-grandson (visiting from up North) watched with us. He parked himself on the carpet in front of the TV with his laptop and played computer games. For the whole two hours that show was on, he played games, or watched Youtube videos. I could clearly see what he was doing. He didn't look up once. He was wearing headphones, and he kept on grunting and squealing under his breath as he played the games, not loud enough to disturb us, but loud enough to make it clear that his real attention was not on the genuine and very real monsters on the show. He was much more interested in the imaginary ones he was "interacting" with on his computer. He did not look up once. I am not exaggerating. Not once.

The giant squid was first photographed by a robot sub with a flashing light lure (it mimicked the bioluminescent display of a jellyfish trying to startle a predator). Once the video was brought aboard the research vessel and the creature positively identified, a scientist went down in a manned submersible carrying a dead bait to attract the beast. Eventually, the big mollusc came out of the dark and attacked the bait. The sub crew got six minutes of video, not all of which was shown on the show, in beautiful color and exquisite detail. It was something no other human eyes have ever witnessed.

The animal was gorgeous, so unlike the shapeless blobs of half-rotted flesh you see in grainy films or in museum freezers--this was a sleek and beautiful animal, graceful and alert, the master of his domain. They live a half-mile down in the cold and dark, studded with weaponry and bristling with sensors, they have no enemies except the great sperm whales which hunt them.

This specimen had probably survived an encounter with the spermaceti, his two long feeding tentacles seemed to have been amputated, but the rest of him was intact. The color was a beautiful tan, the same hue as the Cedar Waxwing's feathers, and its enormous eyes were a startling blue. I wasn't a very large one, about 30 or so feet long, of which half was tentacles. The narrator mentioned no one knows how big they grow, but they suspect the largest ones have a body about the size of a bus.

It was absolutely spectacular video of an incredible scene, and a remarkable human achievement. But the youngster missed it. I guess he had something better to do.

[capt_nemo]

HenryC,

I, for one, am deeply concerned about the "attachment" younger folk (and not so young folk) have with the latest and greatest, state of the art, leading edge of technology electronic gadgets. Methinks Society at large will wind up paying a very high price that most folks can not even begin to comprehend. Interpersonal relationships (including FAMILY), people skills, body language, proper vocabulary, and language usage are just a few of the many areas that will indeed suffer in the near term.

But that's just the 2-cent opinion of one who will be 70 in about a month!

capt_nemo

[HenryC]

My sentiments exactly (I'll turn 67 in August).  I have a hard time relating to young people, even the ones who are friendly and clever. I don't understand their music, their politics, even their humor or taste in movies. When I was a hippy dippy college kid I thought I'd never let this happen to me, but here we are!  Then again, maybe we complain about the new technology and its application the way the old Egyptian scribes used to complain about the new-fangled Phoenician alphabet...

"Darn kids, they learn to write now in just three months. You can't write proper poetry and prayers and funeral inscriptions in that new-fangled scribbling."  How can you say anything worthwhile with just 24 letters, you need hieroglyphics!"

In the '80s I actually earned my living as a scientific programmer in Silicon Valley, real state-of- the-art stuff.  Now all I do is a little web surfing and email.  My wife has to do all my Windows maintenance and software downloads for me, and forget about Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of that nonsense.

And I've never owned a car with an automatic transmission.  Somehow, it just ain't natural.

[Bob23]

Well, this is interesting. Age is the price we pay to acquiring wisdom.
Bob23

[frank]

Give the kid a break !!   He was almost at level 14 !!     :-)









Sad isn't it







While visiting a friend recently I noticed that every single person in the home....well....wasn't (mentally)

Each kid was up in there own room on a video game or face book  

Mom was doing her e-mails

All were wired to somewhere "outside" the house.

As my buddy and I spoke...pizza arrived. everyone came down from their room....grabbed a piece and returned upstairs.

I thought 'how sad'....this is what a 'family meal' has come to....

Yep....ain't technology great!

[Michael]

I can't help but wonder what I am missing while sitting here reading these posts and typing my replies.
Fair winds,

MM in Wonder

[MacGyver]

I take time to catch up digitally, but I think it is worth it, I mean, I have become very good friends with Vipersdad on here and I have not met him face to face, but I have spoke with him on the phone many many times, at great length, like old friends.
I have made many other friends here as well, which would not have happened had it not been for online time.......

But I do agree that you need to be unplugged, and I do find it sad when I talk with young kids about things like Chernobyl and such, things that were of great interest to me and still are, and learn that they dont know what that is...... nor are they taught about it.

I am 33 and it is a real shocker to learn of someone not knowing something but to know that a lot of time is spent on mindless FaceBook games, or even mindless television shows..... I mean...... Two and a Half Men can really only teach one person so much........

At any rate, I actually ended up giving up on helping to educate others like that because it was a near waste of my time, as they wouldnt really listen..... They had to hurry up to sit, eat and explore the posts of their friends.

I was really saddened the other day when I saw a very pudgy young lady walking down the street, I at first was happy, she was outside walking, then I saw her on the phone with both hands walking........ most certainly not experiencing the life around her.

Today...... I saw some kids walking between fast food joints, and the one boy finished his soda and then just tossed his cup in the grass!

To me, this is a degradation of humanity, a loss of the human side of life, the side that says hi to someone even though you dont know them at all.........they dont seem to have a care about anyone else anymore. Maybe that is why there are more shootings, and more divorces, more parentless kids, etc......... and that is saddening. I hate to see it.

Mac

[frank]

Temple Grandin is an autistic, gifted women that designed (invented) cattle handling systems that are calming, humane and now used world wide. So...what the heck does that have to do with this exchange? Because of her disability/gift...she looks at things  'differently' than we typically do. In an interview I listened to her talk of todays youth and gaming on the interent. She explains: "when we were young there was no texting, no cell phones, no emails and no interactive games involving thousands" "we has swing sets and teeter totters, we lined up and WAITED OUR TURN. There is no waiting any more. Everything is INSTANT. The problem , she said, with todays youth is they expect INSTANT and don't know HOW to be in line and wait their turn."

I grew up a block away from a public park. It was busy! There were 4 swing sets and several teeter-totters. YES...thre were line ups and we ALL waited our turn!

I drive by the same park...still in a busy residential neighborhood...there are NO kids!! Honest...NONE!! I invision them all...sitting in their bedrooms...on level 10 hoping to make it to 15 or on facebook.

Whats right...whats wrong?

Remember...this post is brought to you via the internet.......

PS...Temple is an incredible womem. She may be autistic, but has earned a PHD and is recognized all over the world as an expert in her field.
If you never heard of her...worth the Google search.

[Bob23]

  It's high time the autism is no longer looked at negatively. I know a few autistic kids who are way smarter than I am (actually not that hard) and have incredible memories. It takes a lot of work, patience and perserverance to harness all that potential.
  The net, as well as all the other gizmos mentioned above are just tools. Perhaps the misuse of them is more indicative of flaws in the humans that use them than the gizmos themselves. Of course, if no one teaches right from wrong, why do we have a tendency toward wrong? Hmm...
  Part of the lure of sailing for me is the detachment from these tentacles of technology. That's why when I'm on any vacation, first thing I do is ditch my watch. Now I'm living!
Bob23

[HenryC]

Can you really blame them for forming online communities, spread across the planet, which they retreat to with their devices and social media?  Look how they got that way.  We, and our parent's generation, forced them into exile.  We don't live in villages, or country communities, or small towns, or even big city neighborhoods.  We live in the suburbs, or in mondo condo.  They don't know their neighbors, they are isolated from one another.  We live in single family homes, commute vast distances to work and school in private motorized chariots, and we keep in touch with the outside world through moving broadcast images, telephones, and now, email or social media.. 

Our children don't meet anyone else except their classmates, and we hang out mostly with our workmates.  Very often the family in the apartment or house next to ours is a stranger.  Most of the people we know don't know each other, this is probably the first time in history that has happened, never have people have been so separate and isolated.  And the last bastion of intimacy, the family, is wracked by separation and divorce.  Kids can't wait to leave the house, then they can't wait to get away from home, and then move out of town all together. If they're lucky they'll go to college where for a few years they'll hang out with a group of people with common interests.  A community.  Can we really blame them for cultivating a circle of friends online that are instantly accessible, even if they have never met face to face?

I grew up in an ethnic neighborhood, Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, in the Ponce de Leon government housing projects.  But I knew friends, family, neighbors, classmates, businessmen, people of all ages and social classes.  Then we moved to the suburbs, Clair-Mel City, tract housing, cow pastures and low population density.  Nuclear families only, people more or less just like us economically, but very different socially, small working class families, and because I was a boomer, most of the other kids were my age. I rode the bus to Brandon High seven miles away.  Still, I was socialized mostly under the old system.  We didn't own a TV until I was twelve, and I didn't drive like most of my fellow classmates did.  I didn't date until after I was in college.

The next generation is truly isolated, but they built their own communities, with the help of technology, because their parents and grandparents had retreated to this detached universe of suburban tract housing, automobiles, TVs and telephones.  My parents generation built a world for themselves that gave them the peace and isolation they craved after the Depression and the War.  But for kids, it was a sterile environment, they couldn't wait to get away from it.  I remember my culture shock and loneliness when I moved out of town to live out my teenage wasteland in Brandon.  The next generation were born into that world. That's all they have ever known.  Facebook and Myspace and all the rest is their social universe now..  Its no wonder we feel like we've been left behind.

There was a time when a man lived a life very much like his grandfather's and his grandkids would live lives much like his. The world aged slower than people did. Even the language changed very little over a man's lifetime. Although there might be natural disasters, wars, a new king, famines, plagues and other changes, the social universe remained the same.  We now live in a world that is constantly changing, and we are all exiles in our own country.  Our grandfather's world is as alien to us as our grandchildren's is. The only people we can truly relate to are people our own age.  Everyone else is a foreigner.

[brackish]

In the Fall of 2012 I walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela from France across the Basque country of Northern Spain.  Most folks on the Way were mostly disconnected electronically from the larger world and were living in the moment.  Sharing evening meals, living together in essentially village dormitories, and chatting with folks from all over the world, it was a slow paced experience I enjoyed immensely.  We are planning to go back when we turn 70.

At 67 I own a smart phone which I hardly ever use except for talking.  I have a Facebook account that I was forced to get because of my status as group run leader for the Tupelo Running Club. The club has a site which is used to schedule runs and advertise races which is a good thing.   I have to admit that my personal page has also gradually put me back in touch with some friends and relatives who are so far away I can't see them often and that is a good thing.

Four weeks ago a new grand daughter was born.  She lives four hours away, so it is impossible for us to see her often.  My son has kept her off of Facebook but set up a password protected site where they place pictures.  We check for new Elsa pictures daily and are thrilled when a new batch arrives.  That is a good thing.

Bob23 is right, this technology is just about tools that are sometimes misused.  Young folks are tuned in to them.  In my teenage years the obsession was cars, knowing how to fix them, enhance the HP and make them look cool.  That time has mostly passed.

My biggest concern regarding technology and young people is health.  One of the TRC club members is the PE coach for all the elementary schools in district.  He is always trying to get the kids active, both at school and at home.  Recently he had a fun run for grades K-6.  K-2 were to run a half mile.  Grades 3-6 were to run a mile.  700 kids showed up to run the races.  I helped with the race and what concerns me is that more than 50% of the kids could not finish the distance without stopping to walk.  That is not a good thing.  My generation was active as kids, playing sports (not the adult organized versions of today), riding bikes, swimming, and generally being outside a lot.  Hard to get them off the IPad and out of the AC today.

While I share the concerns that my age contemporaries Henry and Don have I remain optimistic that things will eventually move in the right direction.  The only other choice is pessimism and that just doesn't work for me.

[frank]

Several insightful and well worded responces! Henry...well written.