Not to pretend that I'm anywhere close to being as "fanny" as Robyn, but hubby and I are plowing our way through the Star Trek: The Next Generation series--1-2 episodes a night, more on the weekend. In last night's episode, an alien wipes the short term memory of the Enterprise crew in order to use their expertise and the Enterprise's technological/weaponry advances. (It also creates the opportunity for Riker and Ensign Ro to have relations; since their memory has been erased, they don't remember they don't like each other.) The crew spends most of the episode attempting to recreate who they are and the nature of their mission--turning first to the ship's computer.
So, that's a logical first move--everything about the ship is stored in the computer's or Data's memory. I was fascinated by how quickly they turned to the computer, because I think it reflects an acceptance that is easy to incorporate in every aspect of human life. But, as we find out in the episode, Data is flawed and so is the computer: the alien has corrupted or deleted most of the data/files. It is human intuition that saves the day--hey, it's Picard, he always saves the day!
I'm reminded of some advice about technology I read recently. In his column Three Hard Things in the latest issue of Library Journal, Roy Tennant lists three things that are crucial in staying abreast of technological advances: take time to learn, try something new, and stop doing something. I appreciated Tennant's comment that while he has tried new technology, he doesn't embrace all of it (he tried social networking but found it didn't work for him), but at least he's aware of what it is and how it can be used. There it is, the idea that I will take with me throughout the rest of my career.
P.S. I'm not looking forward to flickr, but am working my way up to it!
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