Smart Regression ---------------- It seems that everything around us is becoming smarter. Our phones, computers, televisions, cars, you name it. They're all doing very intelligent things and talking back and forth with us about their various tasks constantly. The playing field has been completely changed. In fact, the very game itself is not the same. And while we cannot deny the advantages of technology moving forward, we feel that someone needs to take a good look at what is being left behind. Arthur C. Clarke made the infamous observation that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" nearly half a century ago. For far too many of us, this holds true today more than ever. We don't actually understand how our technology works nor do we particularly care to. While that attitude isn't exactly new (after all, how many people really know how to build a telephone or a radio?), the consequences of surrendering virtually every aspect of our lives to "smart" technology could be extremely serious. A good number of us have jumped into the recent smart phone craze. Try finding a phone that doesn't come with a camera, a web browser, GPS features, all sorts of games, the ability to watch movies, an interface to all of the social networking sites, etc. With increased coverage areas and all of us walking around with these things, we never need to be out of touch again. It's the ultimate nightmare. We've programmed ourselves into always being at someone else's beck and call. We read our email the moment it arrives, update the world via Twitter and Facebook as to our every step and mood swing, constantly text back and forth between others who are back and forth between others who are doing the same thing, all the while becoming lost in our little devices at the expense of the actual world around us. In the end, it's not all that different from previous generations who found themselves glued to televisions in search of a better reality. We willingly give up our privacy and let the world know exactly where we are, far more than what the world has any right to know or has any sane interest in. Addresses, phone numbers, pictures, family minutiae... all held up for display. Our entire worlds go into our phones and all of our contacts have corresponding files with as much detail as we care to store about them. Yes, you can have not only a picture and name pop up when someone calls you, but their most recent post on a social networking site so you can gauge their mood or know what they ve been up to before you even start talking to them. You can have little essays written about everyone you know and every bit of information you have on them, all at your fingertips anytime. Big Brother has nothing on this level of surveillance. And since so many of us still don't use adequate security - like even having a simple password for our phones - all of this information becomes public when the phone is lost, lent to someone untrustworthy even for a moment, or sent out for repairs. We won't even get into the many risks of compromise through the airwaves. But we've been sacrificing our privacy for a while now. That isn't really all that new. We just are able to give up an increasing amount in a much more efficient way now. What's of greater concern is how much of our lives are becoming dependent on technology in an unhealthy way. Literally, the health issues are of concern. Despite what anyone says, we really don't know the health effects of having wireless devices transmitting right next to our heads for, in some cases, most of our waking life. There's no way we can truly know until the potential effects start to manifest themselves and that can take decades. The more immediate health issue comes from spending way too much time in front of computer and phone screens and not being as physically active as we once were. By living vicariously through others experiences, we lose out on our own way to often. But there are many other issues. How many of us actually know the important phone numbers of our lives anymore? More and more, people only know how to reach their friends and relatives by scrolling down to the corresponding name on their phone. Why waste space storing numbers and email addresses in your head when your phone can do it for you? This works great until your phone is lost or broken. Then you find yourself utterly stranded because you ve become dependent on a smart device. Similarly, those of us who use GPS to get around are increasingly using it as a crutch. It's not even isolated to cars anymore. Our smart phones allow us to know where we are by walking down a street. It's all very useful until we find that we can't function without it. The inability to quickly map out a neighborhood in your head is a significant one. A growing number of us have basically stopped communicating one on one. We broadcast our whereabouts via Twitter and those who care to join us know what to do. Then we share a little breathing space with those people while we spend most of our time updating the net with our current location. While personal phone calls, texts, or emails still happen (constantly), you're expected to pay attention to "news feeds" so that you know what your friends are doing. Otherwise you will be left out. And of course, there is the issue of quality: too much and too little at the same time. We're losing our concept of distance and of our cultural distinctiveness. It used to be hard to call someone far away. When you did, they sounded remote and they sounded different. Now we not only are able to communicate globally as easily as we can locally, but the cultural differences are being slowly wiped away, replaced with Internet memes, idolization of Western icons, and the overall illiteracy of two line text messaging. Since so two line text messaging. Since so many of us now only use cell phones and shoddy (but cheap) VoIP services, we don't even know how much better landlines used to sound. Just as real life letters were eclipsed by phones, the significance of a phone call has been eclipsed by the fact that we're all constantly on the phone, often unable to distinguish one conversation from the next. This relates to the overall loss of history that we face due to our obsession with smart devices. Who can remember individual phone conversations when there are so many of them in a typical day? Who can recall years from now one's thoughts as they were written down if they were only expressed as a 140 character entry on Twitter? How many actual diaries will never be penned now? Will we care enough (or even be able) to read our own words, let alone those of others, generations from now? The key to conquering any form of technology is to maintain control over it. We can't expect everyone to know how everything works but that information must be accessible to those who are interested in pursuing it. What really matters is that we not surrender all that we know and all that we are to our little devices or to massive entities somewhere. If you lost your smart phone tomorrow, would you easily recover? Would private information of others be in the hands of whoever found your phone? Would you know how to contact your friends? If Gmail disappeared, would your life be in shambles? Could you socialize without Facebook? Do you honestly believe you have more than one hundred friends? How much joy can you get out of life without constantly using some form of electricity? It's particularly ironic that such words of warning appear in a hacker magazine. Years ago, it was our dream to have this level of technology to play and experiment with. And there is a great deal of good that has come out of it. Access to reading material, music, video, and just the means of communication that is now possible is simply stunning and revolutionary. This is what true magic is all about. But that magic is lost if we drown in it or allow ourselves to become enveloped in a mass hypnosis that cuts us off from our privacy concerns, the value of individuals, or our connection to other ways of life. Balance is the key. Without it, smart will simply be the new stupid.