{"id":1205,"date":"2008-12-07T06:54:13","date_gmt":"2008-12-07T11:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2008-12-07T07:02:50","modified_gmt":"2008-12-07T12:02:50","slug":"on-touch-technology-alienating-humans-senses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2008\/12\/07\/on-touch-technology-alienating-humans-senses","title":{"rendered":"On touch, technology alienating humans, senses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Halim brought up a great topic on how computers are <a href=\"http:\/\/tunkuhalim.wordpress.com\/2008\/11\/28\/the-ten-commandments\/\">alienating us<\/a> from the outside world&#8230; (c.f. finding information from the library might take an hour, but a Google search will take all of 30 seconds &#8211; plus don&#8217;t forget they scan books now too).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n&#8220;&#8221;&#8230;we got out. We saw other people in the street and in the library: a man in a wheelchair, a helpful librarian, folk reading magazines. Although we didn\u2019t speak to anyone, we interacted with them: a nod, a smile, and people saw us too. We were out there in the community.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a pity that our computers have taken us away from other people.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Really though, what have computers taken away from us? <\/p>\n<p>Nodding, smiling? These are nice, polite gestures, but there&#8217;s no love lost, if you don&#8217;t do that (to randoms you find on the road). A really common practice in Australia (especially in the smaller cities, like say, Port Pirie even!), but a not so common one in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>We have <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sense\">senses<\/a>. Is it about the senses?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sight &#8211; you can see someone via a video-conference. Google has brought this to GMail, so it can now happen in-browser. Skype has had it for ages&#8230; 3G video calling means you don&#8217;t even need to be chained to your desk<\/li>\n<li>Hearing &#8211; you can already hear a person&#8230; most IM clients now have voice components, and we&#8217;ve had the telephone for ages.<\/li>\n<li>Taste &#8211; I doubt you taste the humans you meet, but maybe this can be locking lips? OK, this is still a in-person thing, if at all<\/li>\n<li>Smell &#8211; no smells through a computer yet&#8230; and smells can evoke emotions&#8230; I know the whiff of hair, or even a some perfume can subtly excite someone, so this is still an in-person thing<\/li>\n<li>Touch &#8211; I think this might be the most important of all the things that computers have taken away from us. Why, later<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, if its a friend, or even an acquaintance, the sight and hearing is all you need. If you&#8217;re intimate with someone, taste, smell, touch make sense&#8230; so its a given, intimacy doesn&#8217;t happen through a computer keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>Touch is important. I dislike touching people, unless I&#8217;m comfortable with them and they&#8217;re in the <i>inner circle<\/i>. The other day, I hugged a close friend I&#8217;d not seen in over a year. It felt good. Closest human contact I&#8217;ve had in a long time (to put it in context, I can&#8217;t even remember the last time this happened). I can see the importance in touch, and I wish it happened more often, I guess<\/p>\n<p>Why do I dislike touching people, as a generalisation? Shaking hands&#8230; rabid passing of germs!<\/p>\n<p>OK, this is getting on to becoming a pointless rant. I don&#8217;t think computers alienate folk &#8211; sight and sound is all you really need, for 95% of your relationships (ok, that number pulled out of the hairs on my arse :P). &#8217;nuff said<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20On%20touch%2C%20technology%20alienating%20humans%2C%20senses&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bytebot.net%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F12%2F07%2Fon-touch-technology-alienating-humans-senses&share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email a link to a friend\" data-email-share-error-title=\"Do you have email set up?\" data-email-share-error-text=\"If you&#039;re having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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We saw other people in the street [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20On%20touch%2C%20technology%20alienating%20humans%2C%20senses&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bytebot.net%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F12%2F07%2Fon-touch-technology-alienating-humans-senses&share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email a link to a friend\" data-email-share-error-title=\"Do you have email set up?\" data-email-share-error-text=\"If you&#039;re having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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No reason to go deeply into notes (as the verbose slides are available), but the actual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2658,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2013\/02\/28\/emagine-mini-wireless-keyboard","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":2},"title":"EMAGINE mini wireless keyboard","date":"28\/2\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was at the launch of EMAGINE yesterday, and all of us walked away with a door gift: an EMAGINE mini wireless keyboard. \u00a0 When I first saw it I thought it would be a Bluetooth wireless keyboard (potentially handy for a tablet). Sadly, I notice that you need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Tech&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8230\/8516688685_f20cc1f742_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1243,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2008\/12\/25\/amarok-20-uses-mysql","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":3},"title":"Amarok 2.0 uses MySQL","date":"25\/12\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've always been more of a GNOME guy, and when running Linux, I use Rhythmbox to play my music. However, Amarok 2.0 might just change that. They've chosen their database - it is none other than MySQL. The release notes state: Some features, such as the player window or support\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;MySQL&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3012,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2014\/12\/16\/apple-store-malaysia-accepts-amex-now","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":4},"title":"Apple Store Malaysia &#8211; accepts AMEX now","date":"16\/12\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Where possible, the only card I use is my American Express charge card. Of course, recently, Maybank has upped the ante with an Amex card that provides TreatsPoints (and if you\u2019re after air miles, they are better than the charge card membership rewards \u2013 go figure). I especially like purchasing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1223,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2008\/12\/13\/new-ipod-touch-firmware-allows-over-the-air-podcast-downloads-but","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":5},"title":"New iPod Touch firmware allows over-the-air podcast downloads, but&#8230;","date":"13\/12\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The new firmware (ok, its been out a few weeks) for the iPod Touch (and I presume the iPhone), allows one to download podcasts over the air - i.e. no need to sync with iTunes any longer, you can do it over the 3G network (on an iPhone) or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}