Limits to Technology

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

— Albert Einstein

I don't go out of my way to be continually plugged in. My old car has a radio I can tune and a player for one CD at a time. There is no dock for continuous music from an iPod, nor do we use satellite radio. I keep using my 10-year-old phone, a BlackBerry, because it has a real keyboard for sending short messages rather than a touch screen. It has a decent camera and I can read emails. I can't "interface" with some sites anymore because BlackBerry has become a dinosaur, sort of like me, but those are sites I don't miss. 

BlackBerry, photographed using my tablet (Margo D. Beller)

Unlike the people I see on my various trains to work now, or on the busy streets of New York City, I can't monitor social media on my phone - no Facebook, no Twitter, no cat videos, nothing. I can listen to music I've loaded on it but most of the time I use the phone for what I consider its primary use - as a way to make a call (although now I also use it to text).

That said, I am no Luddite. I've had to learn how to use technology in order to stay gainfully employed. I recently bought a small tablet I can use when I travel or if I don't care to go upstairs to my laptop, itself an improvement from the "old days" of two decades ago when I had a full computer rig with drive, monitor and keyboard. My laptop is lighter and has more power than the old rig, but even here I prefer using an outside keyboard and a mouse, both of which have wires I plug into ports. (Yes, I've learned what a port is.)

Technology has also invaded the birding world beyond taking a decent pair of binoculars out into the field. 

Bird-centric technology is everywhere, starting with the apps. There are apps you can put on your souped-up phone to send your bird sightings directly to e-bird, the service run by Cornell University's Ornithology Lab and the National Audubon Society that lets you record your lists, check what's happening at "hotspots" around the world or in your backyard, and read bird-related news. You can load field guides into your phones rather than lug around your copy of the 1947 Peterson guide. You can download thousands of bird songs to check what you are hearing at that moment rather than trying to figure it out later. You can use the Global Positioning Satellite, or GPS, on your smart phone to go into the woods and presumably not get lost because you'll be able to check where you are and the type of terrain you might be stepping onto. 

Tablet, photographed using my BlackBerry (Margo D. Beller)

Even binoculars have changed. You can buy them with night vision to find that great horned owl hooting at you at midnight. There are digital binoculars that act like digital cameras so, in the words of one site, "you will not just be able to view objects but also you will be able to record them." 

I admit, some of this stuff could be helpful, especially as I get older. So why don't I use it? The cost is one reason. And the more bells and whistles, the more things that can go wrong and/or break, just like with some of the high-tech cars.

Another reason: I like to use my brain. 

It seems too much like work to go charging into the woods headlong after some reported rarity and depend on an app you might not be able to access if you don't have a signal. Too many people go into places where they are not supposed to go because they think they can get out as long as they have the app. It is like the drivers who pay no attention to road conditions, expecting the car to think for them. 

If I need to know where I am, I study a map - a paper one. Or I travel with MH, aka Mr. Map, who will either know from studying a paper map where we're going or will check his phone, which is a bit smarter than mine. I prefer to "listen" to my sore knees, my lack of breath, my fatigue and know when to turn around and go back before it's too late.

My Nikon 10x50, non-tech binoculars (Margo D. Beller)

If I am looking for a bird I'm hearing, I use my non-tech binoculars. They can't help me see at night, they can't automatically send my data anywhere, but they help me see what I am looking for, at least most of the time (especially since upgrading to 10x50s).

Again, I've learned to live with technology. But I've also learned technology has its limits. So do I.