Page 6 - January_Newsletter_2017

changes in recent years – but will we all manage to survive while we mas-
ter this new technology. It seems that technology can sometimes be more
of a problem than a solution….
Here’s an item that I first heard about many years ago.

An American went in to buy a camper van, and one of the features
of the model he bought was cruise control, so the salesman gave
the spiel about how good cruise control was because you could get
to the speed you wanted, press a button then the van would just
coast along at that speed with no effort from you to maintain the
speed.
So the American bought the camper van, took it out on the high-
way - got up to his desired speed and pressed cruise control. He
then thought, well, now that I'm coasting along I'll go back and
make a cup of tea - needless to say the camper van crashed be-
cause nobody was steering - The American guy sued
(successfully) the salesman for failing to tell him that he still had
to steer while using cruise control.

PS – Did you know that cruise control was first created/patented
by a blind inventor – Ralph Teetor – in the 1940/1950s?

So, unless you understand the limitations of some of the technology you
are using, it may be best left alone.
That example was from a while ago, more recently, we have seen massive
leaps forward in technology that has affected many people – especially
with regard to phones.
We used to walk around looking at the sky and enjoying the immediate
surroundings and being aware of what was going on.
Now we walk along the streets without a care in the world staring at a
small screen - either finding our way with an app (because we get lost eas-
ily) or communicating with friends or work colleagues (because that is
what everyone does) or buying something on-line (just because we can) or
playing a game (because I need to win – now!).