Here is an essay that I found gathering dust...

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, MAKING THINGS BETTER, OR WORSE?

Jack Bragen

Videocassette recorders have been replaced with DVR's, and cassette tape recorders have been replaced with digital voice recorders.  This composes a problem.  Technology is in some cases being redesigned to remove our options, not increase them. 
     For example, the Google Chromebook.  Is this the direction personal computing is headed?  The consumer is expected to rely on a commercial sponsor to safeguard their important data.  Cloud storage is another way that more power is given to some remote authority and taken from the hands of the individual. 
     Concerning the demise of the videocassette recorder; persons in the public no longer have the option of recording television onto removable storage.  Concerning the unavailability of audiocassette machines, same thing.  Technology has become exclusively reliant on microchip storage.  This puts all of our eggs in one basket.  And this basket has holes.
     Why is computerized storage of all of our media not a good thing?  There are several reasons.  To begin with, stored data is corruptible through numerous avenues.  There could someday be some kind of "data Armageddon," in which an ultra computer virus disrupts data on a massive scale.  Short of that, there is the everyday anonymous hacker who intentionally does harm to people's data and thus to people's lives. 
     Even though digital storage is thought to maintain a better standard of quality, this is not always so.  Data compression to save disk space is the modern day equivalent of the media deterioration that existed in analog systems.  Moving pictures on old fashioned film were subject to chemical deterioration and glitches.  Data compression as well as data transfers will cause images and sound to become less clear. 
     Secondly, it is not safe to rely on governmental authorities or on corporate mega-conglomerates to safeguard our data for us.  The nature of human beings is that, much of the time, they can't be trusted when in positions of power.  The prospect of everyone relying on cloud storage frightens me. 
     It would not be that far of a leap to then begin rewriting history, as was the practice in the fictional dystopia of George Orwell's 1984.  There are numerous people for example, who would like us to forget about the Holocaust. 
     Thirdly, modern technology has caused widespread dumbification of some people.
     On the positive side, the existence of the internet has caused many people to rise out of ignorance and to become connected to a worldwide community.  The fact that everyone has a cellphone has enhanced personal security, and it has made our lives easier.  The internet has dealt a lot of help to disabled people. 
     Technology, while it has created problems, it has at the same time solved other problems.  Time will tell if our technological advances will be our demise or our salvation. 

Jack Bragen is a former video repair technician and a former self-employed computer assistant.  He lives in the Martinez area.