Jun
21
It’s Complicated
Filed Under Devotional
Well, all you technology guys are about to take a shot from an older guy. I spent many an hour in aluminum plants in the Pacific Northwest and, brother, could they eat up the energy. But, we were told it was bad business for the country to use all of that hydro power. “Shut down the plants and tear out the dams because the salmon can’t get to their spawning grounds,” was the cry that went out. Well, the plants are being dismantled and now we primarily buy our aluminum from overseas. That’s where they pollute much more and exploit the workers. Guess what happened to the power the aluminum plants used to use? The Pacific Northwest is now home to the new energy gluttons: computer servers.
That’s right: Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have taken over the power grid and use more power than the aluminum plants ever did. Of course, there are no smoke stacks from a building humming with information transfer, but the bike riding, sail boarding, and backpacking public have to have their iPhones and laptops because they might miss an opportunity to download a song, send a text with an all important bit of gossip, or, most important of all, share a picture of someone they know without clothes. Don’t get me wrong. We have to have the technology, but you have to admit that there is some irony here.
Poor old salmon and poor old river otters suffering so we can search for information right now!
“Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.” Ecclesiastes 7:29
God made us very simple and plain, but we have made ourselves very complicated.
Sorry, that’s just a gut reaction of an old philosopher. I guess I need to go fishing.