  Discuss neo-luddite computing, "tech porn," and the endless upgrade in Shop Talk. |
Street Tech has a number of key influences. Wired's Fetish and other "Sharper Image-style" tech columns are influences by bad example. There are far too many of these "tech porn" columns (and entire magazines!) where the writers often work from little more than manufacturers' press releases ("rip and read journalism," it's called). While these columns are often clearly written as informational (who, what, why, how much) not critical, together they create the impression that certain products are hot when they've often not even been demo'd. (Remember the PhoneMiser?)
Street Tech is an attempt at being truly honest about technology: "beyond the hype," as our motto goes. Is the technology really useful? Is it worth the money? Will it improve the productivity of the user, or simply add to an already complex and often frustrating high-tech work environment? These are the sorts of questions we ask our writers to ask themselves as they evaluate hardware for us.
The following essay, written by Street Tech faithful Peter Sugarman, originally appeared in the fringe culture zine bOING bOING in the fall of 1992 (issue 10). It articulates yet another desire implicit in the Street Tech mission: to "get off the treadmill!" of endless hardware and software upgrading. To find the tools that work well for you and then to ignore all of the "new! improved!" product hype as long as possible. Few of us can actually do this ("tech porn" is a powerful aphrodisiac), but we could probably improve the quality of our lives if we did. I've recently made a point of avoiding all alpha/beta releases of software (Neo-Luddite slogan corollary: "no 'ware before its time!") and have been experiencing fewer crashes as a result. Now if I could only resist the temptation to buy that new Micron 333 MHz/DVD machine. Neo-Luddite Computer Solution The computer industry is a chicken on growth hormones, sloshing around in a nutrient bath with its head cut off. Hardware is out of date as soon as it's installed. Program bloat is rampant, outstripping ever-larger hard drives. As sacrifice on its neophilic altar, featuritis demands the constant obsolescence of programs no one has had time to learn in the first place. It's out of hand, dripping on the floor. I read an article describing the technical hoops a consumer needs to jump through to "enjoy" the new MPC (Microsoft's Multimedia PC) standard. The next day, I read how the Mac has succeeded in completely losing its ease-of-use. It's getting to be impossible to judge whether a program will even RUN on all the mutant Macintosh variations proliferating out there. We're growing diseased silicon mushrooms, not information appliances. It's amazing that the corporate sponsors who've subsidized this industry are STILL willing to put up with this nonsense of growth for growth's sake. Zaibatsus (multinational industrial and media combines) pump billions into personal computers and get no bottom line productivity payback. Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and the rest of their ilk are leading us around by our throbbing mouse-button fingers! Enough and more than enough! This illusion of progress must end! Hear now the news: the debut of the Neo-Luddite Computer Solution. Our sound-bite slogan is "Off the Treadmill!" It's time to get off this fevered merry-go-round. It's not the latest and the greatest that we need, but the low and the slow. We need to go forward- into the past! What adds up to progress? Positive change in your life! We work with software, not hardware. A program is only as deep as your familiarity with it. It is in that familiarity that human augmentation begins to take place and the computer starts to make life easier for you. It's between you and the box; it's got nothing to do with some breathless marketing hype. Computer progress? Enough for now! Those in the 'puter biz lose track of the big picture. Most people don't understand, or even care about understanding, computers. Mac software of the late '80s delivered features and functionality way past what most people ever got to experience. But not way past what they could understand and benefit from. So here's the deal. First we choose a hardware platform - a Volkswagon "beetle" of computers. Something durable, portable and relatively sprightly, like a PowerBook 100. Then we select an operating system that's STABLE, rather than bleeding edge. Finally we come up with a suite of Pretty Good Software, consisting of an integrated package that provides basic word processing, spreadsheet, database and telecom. Add a few special purpose programs to cover graphics, multimedia authoring, and desktop publishing. Mix in online tutorials and enough solid help to make the timid confident and the novice productive. Pick up your 'puter. Learn one suite of software. Do NOT come back for at least five years. After that, you MIGHT be eligible for your next computer solution. But only if you've truly outgrown what you've worked with for the past half decade. There's precious little simple left in this world. Neo-Luddites know there's enough future shock for all of us. There's no reason to put up with feature shock as well. - Peter Sugarman [4/15/98] |
