My computer died on Tuesday. Not the kind of slow death my cousin suffered when I dared him to eat the entire contents of the collection plate at midnight Christmas mass of 1982, but quietly and quickly. I turned it on, it beeped once confidently, then whimpered, then was no more. I tried my best to mourn her, but I only have ten weeks until the thesis is due, so I needed to buck up and move on, fast.
I’m now typing on a brand new thingymajig, that is large and has bells and whistles and shit, and it’s a desktop, so I’m chained to the home for a while until I can afford a replacement lappy. I didn’t have enough dosh to buy a laptop with all the speed and gadgets I needed for the task at hand, and I didn’t have to shop around much, so I jumped in and committed myself to this.
It’s not a bad device, but it has this thing going on about it which is kinda annoying – face recognition technology. I don’t know what the hell we need this for. But if choose to configure it, the computer’s cam takes a shot of the guy turning on the computer, and can choose not to fire up at all, or choose not to open up certain files and programs. It means every time I turn it on I see a little picture of myself staring at the screen wondering why I can see myself, then little lines and dots cover the capture of my face, and then it says “Welcome… Oh. It’s you.”
It certainly means a change in lifestyle. No longer can I check my emails in the morning before starting my daily man-beauty regimen.
I guess that’s technological determinism for you.
