Saturday, December 6, 2014

Analog v. Digital

 
Two decades ago, I read a smart book by a visionary who saw the future of modern society.  He was a technologist who understood where computers were going to lead us.  In retrospect, he was right.

The visionary was Nicholas Negroponte, a MIT professor.  He was the first investor in "Wired" magazine, and founder of MIT's Media Lab.  The book was called "Being Digital."

Nicholas predicted the replacement of analog objects with digital replicas.  Analog items like newspapers (which are words printed on paper that needed to be distributed physically at high costs for publication and transportation) died a painful death when cheaper means of accomplishing the same thing became available (through Internet distribution of the news).  Nicholas also predicted that instead of mass communication of a broad range of news, we'd be able in the future to narrow-cast our news-feed to just what we want to read. 

In the past two decades, we've all seen examples of this.  We used to get thick telephone books dropped on our doorsteps.  Now they don't even make telephone books any more: you look numbers up online.  The phone companies lobbied legislatures to eliminate the costly requirement of producing those books, arguing that nobody used them any more.

I'm surprised to see analog items that haven't been replaced yet.  Like postage stamps.  In the future, we'll look back  nostalgically at postage stamps.  Kids will wonder what they were.  We'll explain their purpose and beauty.  When they disappear and are replaced by bar-codes (the technology for which already exists), we'll mourn them.

This is why I cling to analog technology.  That and because analog products often work even better than their digital replacement.  Vinyl records provide a deeper, warmer sound than digital files which are deliberately degraded to reduce their storage size.

Not all "progress" is progress.  Replacing analog with digital is often done for commercial reasons: e.g., decreasing the cost of production or distribution.  The new product itself is inferior.  But its inferiority is acceptable enough to justify replacing the earlier, more expensive product.  That replacement benefits some (e.g., sellers) but not others (e.g., consumers).

Do you have any reflections on changes you've seen in recent history?

P.S., I bought the rotary phone pictured above in an antique store two years ago.  It's just like the one we used growing up.  The antique store seller laughed when he told me how amused he is to see kids come in and play with the phone, trying to figure out how to use it.  Practically none of them realize you need to stick your finger into a hole and twist the dial around in a circle.

22 comments:

  1. Do you remember being taught how to properly dial a call by making sure you moved your finger in the hole all the way to way to the stopper? And the satisfaction of slamming the receiver down in anger or frustration? I CHERISH handwritten letters or cards, decorated with a beautiful postage stamp. My best friend and I send each other cards and letters weekly, with recipes, magazine clippings, stickers...or some little thing enclosed. We have vowed to each other not to let this wonderful tradition die!

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  2. Yes I do. And good for you to send real mail. We all love to receive letters.

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  3. Ha, I relate to Susan's comment!!!

    I wrote a blog post back in 2010 about being the last analogue rebel for the TV. I liked having just 5channels that I could access just by pressing numbers 1-5. I never did go onto digital, we just don't have a tv. I liked VCS videos because you could stop it and pick up from the exact moment you left at.
    I am a firm advocate of the handwritten letter and brilliantly, through blogging, I now have 4regular penpals and always send my little sister letters through the post. The excitement of waiting for a letter!!
    I was recently offered a Kindle for practically free but I declined.
    Love this thought-provoking post dear Ally! X

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    1. Good for you! Writing letters is superb. And I like the oddness of old tech. You're too young to remember 8-track tapes but they ran a loop of tape so you always picked up where you left off. You couldn't skip ahead. I've been offered a Kindle -- for free, from a friend -- and turned it down. I like paper books.

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  4. We just picked up a phone like this a couple weeks back for my husband's office : ) It still works and the ring is very cool but it does take a while to dial a number. LOL We got it and a pedestal lamp which I think dates around the 1960's. Slowly we are finishing his office with items bought at estate sales.

    I am a sucker for all vintage or retro items clothes and household. I got hooked on a program called the Goldbergs which is just hilarious and it takes place in the 80's. It is like reliving some of the best years of my life, before all the big technological advances.

    Ideally I would like to have lived at the time of my parents I think. Or at the very least I would have liked to be able to visit. Just like Back to the Future.

    bisous
    Suzanne

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    1. It's funny to think of the 80s as the past. For me, it was just recently. To me, the 60s and earlier are the past. Visiting earlier eras would be eye-opening. As much as we'd like some aspects, we'd be unpleasantly shocked by others. Like watching "Mad Men" and seeing Betty let her children play unsupervised with dry-cleaning plastic bags.

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  5. I have a similar phone that belonged to my grandfather. I remember he was actually using it still as a phone in our summer house when I took it telling him it was antique and I was going to use it As a decoration. I love that phone.
    Daphne.

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  6. I am always reading and everyone tells me to get a Kindle. I couldn't think of anything worse than reading from a screen. I love the feel of books and im so sad that so many bookstores have closed down because of the blasted kindle. My favourite places to visit are bookstores and library's and I will never ever be getting a kindle.

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    1. I agree. The loss of bookstores affected me a lot.

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  7. Intersting topic which is widely discussed these days... I never know how to position myself. On the one hand, I write letters and read in paper books, on the other hand I love my smartphone, instagram and stuff. I guess the importance is to find the right balance between analog and digital...

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    1. That's true. We should embrace new technology that improves our lives, but not adopt everything new just because it exists. The test is whether the new thing is an improvement over the old way of doing something.

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  8. I still have a Walkman. And cassette tapes!! And I use them. People have looked at me strangely when I pull out the Walkman and put in a new tape....

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    1. I *loved* my Walkman when they first came out. It was the first time I was able to carry music around with me. Now, I go to thrift-stores and see cassette tapes and wonder who still has the equipment to play them.

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  9. I miss buttons. Tablets, touch screen phones - I desperately miss the touch of a button. I clung to an older model phone because it had a physical keyboard slide out. I couldn't find a high end keyboard phone other than blackberries! (Which are much too small buttoned for me to use)

    I like the click-click.

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    1. Good point. Our tactile interaction with machines is important. Part of our sensory experience of the world. The loss of that is one reason I'm not eager to adopt digital reproductions of real things.

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  10. In many respects, I'm grateful for digital technology. My life would be much different right now if these advancements hadn't been made. I've accessed nearly all of the sources for my thesis electronically; I can't imagine how much longer it would take me if I had to manually flip through books, journals, etc. Or if I had to write it on a typewriter or by hand! So in that sense, I am VERY grateful for technology. After years of resisting, I have purchased a few books to read on my iPad. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mostly do it for convenience, and as much as I like owning a physical copy, it helps keep the house more manageable (I have WAY too much stuff and no place to put it). But there are some analog things I doubt I will ever give up. I know a lot of people use programs like Evernote, or even the "notes" section in their phone, to manage their stuff. Not this girl. Notepads all the way, baby!

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    1. There's no disputing the advantages in fields like research. And I experienced the change from handwriting and typing to word-processing; that was a major improvement in efficiency. I just don't want to adopt all new changes; I'd rather pick-and-choose based on which ones are better than what they're replacing.

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  11. I totally agree with "not all progress is progress".
    I believe things were made to last and of better quality before, so like you.
    I too bought a rotary bakelite phone, which actually works and is in use at home. Its actually the only phone that works when the power goes off ;)
    And here we still get the phone directory every year in our doorstep, you see we are 3rd world .

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    1. You're right -- things were made better before. They were made to LAST, not be disposed of in a year or two. And problems were fixed by repairmen. You weren't told to buy a new one. Good points!

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  12. One of my cousins came over once and tried to use the phone at my parents house. She looked at me with horror in her eyes and asked why the phone wasn't dialing properly. Turned out she hadn't ever heard the rotary dial signal my parents had at the time because they were unwilling to pay for digital dialing because of a rotary phone they had upstairs. It was kind of awesome.

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  13. We still have an old look like a dial phone that is a sham for underlying digital technology. It hangs on the wall like phones did in the old days.
    Yesterday we were appliance shopping and my wife found a washer dryer set that was totally analog. It will cost us hundreds of dollars more to have dial controls than the new ones but hopefully over time it will save money with repair bills.
    Pat
    PS" My wife does cling to her flip phone.

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