Tech for touch

 Are we exchanging technology for humanity ! I'm sure I am not the first to ask. It is just that this thought entered my conscious after hearing a news report. A university here in Maryland has eliminated all textbooks. All resources being online. They certainly aren't the first to do so but the first I became aware of. Personally I still enjoy that " tactile " experience of holding a book in my hands. Yes, even a textbook can provide that experience for me. I remained more focused upon a book in my hands than a web page. Perhaps it is a generational thing, I can't say. I don't believe they have eliminated the classroom, yet, but will that go next ? I see advertisements for online colleges and universities so I assume that whole experience can be circumvented if you so desire. Technology replacing actual personal interaction. I do not believe being in an online " classroom " would provide the same experience.

 Man has always sought out new technology to make things easier and more efficient. We call them tools. I'm a big lover of tools. I like hand tools. I enjoy working with my hands, although I am not nearly as talented as others. The skill in the use of tools does vary from person to person. Whatever the case may be tools are designed to help. Unfortunately man has also developed technologies that serve no other purpose than to destroy. At first we just took a sharpened stick and jabbed at the ground and planted our seeds. Didn't take long for us to start jabbing each other. It was still a personal experience then, you had to look the other in the eye. You did hear his cries of pain and see the damage you had done. We began to develop technologies to avoid that. We just started throwing that sharpened stick at our enemies, getting ever farther from him. Soon we called those " tools " spears. There only purpose was to do harm. The " tool "  provided a separation from the humanity of having injured or killed our fellow man. 

 Now the elimination of textbooks will not harm anyone. I'm not trying to say that it will. What I am saying is this, we are eliminating the textbooks because of financial concerns. Placing all the resources online will definitely reduce costs. Those online resources being the " tools " required for the job at hand. What are we sacrificing in the process ? Tools, by their very nature, as designed to eliminate work, or at least, make it easier. Do we really want to eliminate the " tool " that we hold in our hand ? Will that cause a separation ? I can only think that to those never having had the experience of holding and learning from a textbook will not miss that experience. Will that lack of experience affect their humanity ? I just don't know.

 I do think we need to do more with our hands and engage in more personal experiences. Man is a social animal. Man also needs to guard against replacing that same humanity with technology. All this going " online " is putting humanity at a distance. Consider any social media site. We can be whoever or whatever we wish to project. We are separated and some choose to use that as a tool. A tool that becomes a weapon. I believe we need to be more " hands on. " Mankind is becoming less tactile, relying upon technology. I wrote yesterday that there was a time when you could know a man's mind by the books in his library. Today we have to look at his browsing history. Would that mind look the same ? 

 In the end I believe we have a far greater appreciation for the things we create with our own hands. We treat those we know better than those we don't. A book, held in the hand, is a personal experience. Did we create that book ? NO, but we held it. We could feel it, smell it and turn it's pages. We developed a connection to the book. Can we develop that same connection to the Internet ? Technology replacing humanity, a scary thought and the stuff of science fiction ? Control the Internet and you can control knowledge. You can then control the books I read. I don't like the idea of that.