My computer at work crashed this morning. It happens. Computers will, from time to time, do things to piss you off. When you are suddenly without all your files, without the internet, and (in my case) without your reservations system, you realize how much you depend on technology. Computers and the internet really do put the world at our fingertips.
What would we do if we no longer had this modern day oracle? What would we do with no modern technology at all?
Some people think humanity would crumble.
I seriously doubt that.
We survived just fine without all this “fancy technology” for quite a long time. Why wouldn’t we be able to do that now?
You argue that the average person has become so dependent on it that one would simply not know what to do in its absence.
You could argue that corporations, banks, and practically every other business, are run largely by computers and losing that would cause massive economic downfall.
You could argue that people, deprived of their internet porn (after all, any fan of Avenue Q can tell you “The internet is for porn.”) would go on a crime rampage–Rape, pillage, and plunder, just like the vikings–and that there’d be massive looting and bank robbery since surveillance systems and so many other security measures are computerized.
You could even argue that people would commit murder or suicide out of sheer boredom.
For these last two especially, I’d tell you that you’re overreacting.
Realistically speaking, we, as a society, would probably be crippled for a while. We might have to revert back to the way of life of the pre-telegraph days. We already have the knowledge that these things (cell phones, television, computers) can be made and can work, though. So it wouldn’t be long before people start recreating them.
Imagine kids in school reading a text book that says, “Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. John Q. Public re-invented the telephone in 2015.”
Maybe losing those ever-convenient things, like email and text messaging, might make us remember how to be human again. How to talk to other people, and, at the very least, how to write a frickin’ letter!
Don’t get me wrong, here. I’m not saying that I wish we could do away with all this technology. I’m as dependent on it as most other people. I like it. I could survive without it, though. So could you. So could the human race in general.
At least, that’s what I think.
What do you think would happen if all technology was somehow lost?
I agree that we should not be tech addicts.
As to your question, the worst and most significant thing that would happen is that lots of people will lose jobs, big or small, but some will acquire ‘manual’ jobs.