Rage Against the Machines

We live in a world that gets more automated every day. You can drive through toll booths without stopping to pay. You can open car doors without even taking out your key. You can turn on lights or other electronic devices simply by clapping your hands. You can say a person’s name and your phone will place the call. You can turn on a sink, a hand-dryer, or a paper-towel dispenser with just a wave of your hand. And you can flush a toilet just by standing up or stepping away. Those are just a few of the many examples, and I’ll bet that by the time you finish reading this post, there’ll be at least one more.

It’s gotten so bad that I’m starting to take certain things for granted. I mean, my initial instinct now is to not flush toilets because I’ve gotten so used to them flushing on their own. You can thank my workplace restroom for instilling that thought in my head. Also at work, all I need to do is stand in front of the paper towel dispenser and one will come out on its own, whether I need it to or not. It’s kind of scary.

I’m trying to resist the urge to let things happen on their own. After all, it’s not always good when things happen just because we want them to, and we don’t even need to put in the smallest amount of effort to make it so. Sometimes things just happen, and not the way we want them to. Convenience schmonvenience. There are certain elemental, basic things I’d like to keep doing for myself, before the robots take over the entire world. Grabbing paper towels and turning on the water in the sink are just two of them. So let’s see how long I can keep this a do-it-myself world.