This is the dawning of the age of... uncertainty.
Here I am, typing away on the latest technology tablet PC. With WiFi access to all the information of the internet. And I claim "uncertainty"?! Absolutely.
Here's a simple example. I'm sitting in a small flat in La Rambla, Barcelona. (Can't get enough of that place-name-dropping:-) And I want to get to a restaurant across the road. So I ask Google Maps to show me the way.
Apparently, the fastest way to get across the road is to walk 800m down the road, round the roundabout and 800m back again.
Okay, I can look out the window and see a better way. What if I can't see the better solution?
In a small village known as St Jean Pied de Port, we followed a different navigation device, a Garmin Oregon. We wanted to walk from the railway station to a particular hotel. We selected, "pedestrian walking".
The Garmin took us 4.5km (or 4,5km in the local language). We could have walked it in less than two kilometres -- if only we knew the streets of the village.
Thanks to our dependence on navigational technology -- we are always uncertain. Is this the best way? Does this device know all of the roads? More importantly -- and a major source of uncertainty -- how does this device calculate the "best" route?!
With a printed map we work out the best way for ourselves. We understand the logic behind our route choice. We are able to change our minds -- to adapt -- while we are on our way.
Dependence on technology has removed our need for thinking. Made us less flexible. Added a new level of uncertainty to our lives.
And that is not at all the topic that I intended to cover!
The dawning of the Age of Uncertainty is best shown by this tablet PC.
Suppose I intend to write C-A-T. In years past I would have pressed three keys on a keyboard: C, A, T. ( On a keyboard? Okay, not all that many years past.)
On the tablet I press cat and am given three options: car, cat and cast. If I mis-key (with fingers that are larger than the buttons on the virtual keyboard) then I could be offered xat, cat and day. (Day?!) Interestingly enough, if I type xat followed by a comma -- I get cat...
Typing on a virtual -- and "clever" -- keyboard adds a new level of uncertainty to this post. I need to watch and check every word that I think I type.
What if I need to make a change?
I tap my finger as close as possible to the word to be changed. Then tap again. Then try to slide the little blue pointer to the correct point. Find that I tapped too slowly so I have selected a entire word... Tap again...
And find that my finger slipped. And I have discovered the wonders of one-finger-zoom...
Perhaps I should read the manual? Of course there is no manual... Just thousands of web pages on topics which are occasionally related to my problem. But I'll never find them because without already knowing the answer -- I don't know the relevant search terms.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great little tablet. (Google Nexus 9, in case you were wondering.) It does everything that I need and perhaps a quarter of what I want.
When Windows was released I was impressed: click the mouse anywhere on the screen and an option would appear. Just what option, was often uncertain. As a beginner, just keep clicking till you find a suitable option.
With the touch screen, touch anywhere on the screen and... something will *happen*. Not always what you wanted to happen.
The level of uncertainty has increased.
Just as you think you have it all under control... a new feature is announced. One-finger-zoom, for example. I've seen it announced. I have yet to see instructions as to how to use it. All I know is, sometimes... it happens.
Welcome to the world of touch computing. Welcome to the world of dependence on unexplained -- but useful -- technology.
Welcome to the bright daylight of the age of uncertainty.
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