Today I managed to drop my Palm Pilot from about a foot off the ground onto carpeted floor ... the force of which shattered the screen. Quality worksmanship, right there.
It's not so much the loss of the material possession that I lament, as I could easily buy something of the same quality for about 30 bucks or less. More likely, it's the loss of the ability to remember shit. It was my little datebook, and now I have to actually remember everything! Gasp!
I see it as a dilemma that will only become more and more prevalent in our evolving society. By the time two years has passed from now, the internet will only be as far as one is from a cell phone, and you'll see almost everyone with one. Just look at Japan, where everyone from 70 year old ladies to 10 year old kids has a "handy phone." With the prevalence of such handy little devices, we are slowly relinquishing control of our own lives and even our brains to little computers. After all, when was the last time you did a math calculation (short of very simple algebra) by hand rather than a calculator? When was the last time you actually knew a friend's phone number? These days I know only a handful of numbers or addresses simply because all of that "trivial" information is stored in my phone and my (now very dead) palm pilot.
Sometimes I wonder what would happen to us if one of those electromagnetic bombs were to go off on our vacinity, frying anything computerized. Seeing as everything, from cars to refrigerators, has become computer-controlled, into what age would we be thrust? It's an interesting thing to think about.
Now it's time to copy down my calendar onto ... paper. The poor man's computer!