Module 10

How funny was the short story A Logic Named Joe, written over sixty years ago???  At first I found the narrative a little difficult to lumber through (okay not just at first but for the entire ten pages).  Perhaps due to the red-necky accent this Logics Company maintenance man was supposed to have?  I kept thinking: come on Sir, speak properly!  I guess I expected a very charming and maybe somewhat formal style of short story writing for 1946.  Also, during the first few paragraphs I was a little confused thinking: wait wait wait, this vision-phone connection...isn't that the same thing as Face Time? Or Skype? What the...did they have that in the 40's??  Okay though, before you think me incompetent and a bit daft, just know that it was certainly by the end of the first page, MAYBE the beginning of the second page that I finally saw the irony: that ol' Logic named Joe is GOOGLE!

It was very interesting for me to read how someone sixty plus years ago would describe what we take for granted every day, the internet.  They sure did describe it quite spot on though wouldn't you say? Okay so yes it was on a bit of a grander and more ambitious scale, helping every day people with magnificent and outlandish inventions that would go on to make them millions, but all I saw in good ol' trouble making Joe was OUR good friend Google!  Joe would be way more awesome simply for the fact the he delivers the number one best answer, fact checked and everything, no need to scroll through needless advertisements cleverly camouflaged as credible websites.  But the idea was the same, all the information you could ever need just at one stop: your marvelous little computer, err...logic!

I did stop to ponder the prediction of it all ruining civilization though.  I think that was either just written that way for entertainment value, or the author of this short story had a very negative view on modern man and modern societies.  But actually, as I wrote that last sentence I realized the author is most likely entirely correct.  If we could have a computer give us very simple instructions for how to counterfeit money, lie to our spouse, rob a bank, of course more people than not would do it! Haha what was I thinking!?  So I will just be grateful that we seem to have found a happy balance with Google.  We can still get all sorts of information, from counterfeiting money to ancient cannibalistic tribes, but we can have it all without it ruining society and destroying our personal lives.  And sorry Mr. Maintenance Man's wifey at home: we DO live in a world where our neighbors can all Google us and find out our real age, and our husband's high school exes and other former flames do indeed contact him (thanks Facebook), but I will take those cons in exchange for all the pros that such a vast amount of information sharing brings us via the internet.

Hopefully the internet will never evolve to a catastrophe like Joe was, because we would have the same problem.  Our modern society now completely relies on it!  I realized just how much we would miss our modern technologies this past month when I bought a new car that wasn't compatible with my iPhone 5 and I went about two weeks before pleading for help over Facebook and finding out (from MY high school ex, hahaha) that there is an adapter!  Just imagine my pain: I spent two whole weeks with only 1 CD and the radio!!!!