The blackberries in the hedgerow always remind me of how far removed from technology I am becoming. The faster technology marches on the larger the chasm between it and me becomes.
How on Earth anyone’s first thought can be of a mobile phone when you mention the beautiful little berry is beyond me. And not only that but just type Blackberry into Google search and you won’t get a whiff of the fruit until page 3! Ye Gods!
Tweet and twitter is still something that birds do – and do far better than I ever will, believe me.
The first known computer ‘bug’ was indeed caused by a bug, or a moth to be precise, when it got stuck inside the gubbings of an early computer in 1947. The name stuck.
There are computer ‘worms’ and ‘root’ systems, ‘swarm’ circuit designs and computer ‘daisy chains’. Of course the references to water are numerous; we surf the web (another one from nature there, too), follow social media streams and some of us get swamped in oceans of data!
Originally, ‘to marshall’ was to tend horses but now, in computer programming, marshalling is the process of gathering data.
One of the first search engines was named after Lycosa kochii, or the wolf spider. Called Lycos, the system was designed to imitate the spider’s habit of catching its prey by relentless pursuit.
Computers can ‘hibernate’ and then there is the ‘cloud’ computing. But not for me there’s not – the clouds are still somewhere I like to keep my head!
Of course with all this new vocabulary there is room for mahoosive misunderstandings too. In work last week, when I was getting a bit tetchy late in the afternoon, my brother teased me, “You need an nap, you’re over-tired!”
“Can you really get an app for being over-tired?” Asked one of the other boys.
And when I told a Client that I had to postpone an appointment as I was having windows installed, she told me very seriously that Windows 10 would install itself.
I was of course referring to the glazed variety.
Che Guevara advised, “Study hard so that you can master technology, which allows us to master nature.”
I recommend spending time in nature, which will allow us to cope with technology.
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