DID THE LUDDITES HAVE A POINT?

When Ned Ludd smashed up 'new-fangled' agricultural machines in the early nineteenth century he would not have known that his name would be given to a movement and that today it represents a fear and mistrust of technology. Good old Ned.

I saw a tv news item the other day about babies early adoption of new technology like i-pads. It's amazing how quickly kids learn to use these 'new-fangled' machines and that they will grow up with them to use as tools as much as we use pens and pencils. But at what cost? The tv report I saw had a 7-day old baby with an i-pad installed in its crib.

Kids playing with smart technology is cute. See below:

2 y.o. with i-pad

This is all very well but child psychologists are now warning against early adoption of smart technology as:

• 'Screen time' is passive time and the child doesn't learn to think for itself.
• Unless there are puzzle games involved it might as well be tv
• Screens don't provide sensory stimulation
• Screens are 2-dimensional and don't encourage development babies' spacial awareness
• Screens and lack of sunlight could damage babies' eyes

[from the American Academy of Pediatrics report]


I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey on TV last night. This is the first time that I've seen this film on TV and I was impressed at how good it still looks and at Stanley Kubrick's vision. Made in 1968 the filming and animation is still gob-smacking.

It got me thinking though at how in 2013, younger people watching this might think it all a bit ho-hum as they have been and are continually exposed to films made using digital technology (The Matrix, LOTR, Iron Man, Star Trek etc) to the point where nothing is marvellous.

I'm not sure I want to live in a world where nothing is marvellous.

Over the last few months we have been should have been treated to wonderful coverage of the mars robotic exploration programme. Two robotic vehicles are on mars and are travelling about, investigating, sampling and reporting. This is huge but has largely gone unnoticed. I guess when there aren't intergalactic wars, evil robots and marauding aliens about then it doesn't command much attention.

A couple of years ago the world via all of the media was focused on the Large Hadron Collider. This was being touted as mankind's greatest engineering milestones. It was built to prove or disprove the existence of the theorised Higgs boson (2) and other particles. This massive machine did actually identify two new particles before the energy drain forced it to be shut down and is considered a success. The frenzied reporting died down however when the media realised that:

1. It wasn't going to send the earth off its axis and,
2. It wasn't going to prove the existence of God.

Currently there is an Earth based exploration project that has the potential to vastly increase the store of our knowledge or to send the earth spinning off its axis. This is the BEAM project (borehole into earth's mantle) where scientists and engineers will drill 6km through the crust and into the mantle to bring rock samples to the surface. Jules Verne could only have dreamt about it. Today's kids? Ho Hum. Where's the aliens or vampires? (or balrogs).

In 2001: A Space Odyssey the ship travels to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. This, in 1968 was way beyond imagination right? Wrong. Since the 1970's NASA has had many programmes with (unmanned) flights to Jupiter. These have been largely fly-bys but the exploration is getting closer.
Amazing? I think so but because the youth of today's imagination has been captured by video games and blockbuster films and dulled by social media, advancements like this are lucky to get a couple of minutes soundbite on TV and are generally bumped because of Kim Kardashian's or Posh Spice's bump.

Just as well I'm a Luddite.

ps. Did you know that an anagram of astronomer is moon starer?