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Loadstar 20
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020.d81
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t.zeitgeist
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2022-08-26
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The Computer Zeigeist
The other day I woke up very early.
The days are very hot here in Japan
during August. So I left my wife
quietly sleeping in bed and stole off
to my computer-study room.
I closed the sliding door, switched
on the air-conditioner and sat down in
front of my computer.
I didn't turn on the computer.
I looked over at the flip file of
computer software, lifted the top and
flipped through past my WordWorks
disk, avoiding doing work on my novel,
abandoning working on my financial
status, grade book and compact disk
collection data files; I browsed past
my arcade games, bypassing an attempt
to master a new level of Lode Runner,
eschewing an opportunity to meet
Zaxxon once again; I pushed by my role
playing disks, refusing another nice
game of chess, shirking my duty as a
WWII submarine captain, missing an
opportunity to win the 1975 World
Series for the Red Sox and saving my-
self from being melted by a tower of
flame directed at me by a fifth
level priest residing in the Proving
Grounds of the Mad Overlord; and I
shut the box before skimming through
my graphics and printing programs,
putting off making a greeting card
for my mother's birthday and
deferring to another time the
completion of a drawing of Himeji
Castle.
I sat for a moment then looked up
at the the books on the shelf behind
the computer desk: There sat books of
computer programs, a programmer's
guide, a software catalog and several
computer language manuals, all well
thumbed. I didn't open any of them.
Instead, I found myself staring
for a long time at the small, silent
monitor, its green light on, but its
screen dark because the computer
itself was not yet on.
And after a while I realized why I
had come here to this room to sit
before the computer.
It was not to get some of my
important work done, nor was it to
while away the time gaming, nor was it
to improve my chess, nor my Japanese
vocabulary, nor to finish a hobby
project.
Instead, I come here, as I came here
just a few minutes ago, to partake in
the sense of possibility yet fully
untapped that this tool adds to our
homes, to our work, to our play, to
our lives themselves; not a threat to
our education, our privacy, our
independence, our jobs, but a tool
akin to the printed word, to written
language, to language itself --
lending us opportunities to extend
ourselves beyond our present selves
even in the early hours of August
days when the heat and the humidity
keep us from our sleep.
Ron St. Pierre
Kobe, Japan
"Dedicated to elegant computing."
--------< end of article >------------