Technology and Scientific Knowledge are moving faster than our Legal Systems or Value Systems can adapt. The increase in conflict and strife on this planet is, in part, due to this. Would that we could adapt our Legal and Value Systems to the new knowledge peace would be ever so much closer.
Anxiety and stress of the old guard over the new ideas and knowledge reminds one of the time when Galileo Galilei was tried by the Inquisition headed by Pope Urban VIII and forced to recant his new knowledge and live out his life under house arrest.
Those things disappearing before our very eyes are:
THE POST OFFICE
Email, Fed Ex and UPS have all but replaced the Post Office. Just take a look at what you receive in the actual mail each day and then think back several years. Gone are the days of waiting for the Post Man to deliver some special news……now we can Facebook, Tweet, Email and Text all that news within seconds……..
THE NEWSPAPER
The younger generation simply does not read the newspaper. They certainly do not subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. Soon news will all be delivered on line…….for a fee. Newspaper and magazine publishers have formed an alliance that has been meeting with Apple, Amazon and major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.
THE CHECK
Britain already has plans to do away with the check by 2018. Plastic Cards and on-line transaction will save the financial system billions of dollars the check processing costs. This goes hand-in-hand with the disappearance of the Post Office. If you did not receive bills by mail or pay them by mail, there would no longer be a need for the post office.
THE BOOK
I must confess that this one pains me the most. I love books, especially used ones that have passed through the hands of many readers. There is nothing that brings me more joy that to read on old cookbook and find notes by those who have prepared the recipe before me and added their own notations. It is apparent that the book is going fast. Whenever I travel, I am usually the only person who is reading from paper.
My dear blogger friend The Coastal Crone has written a beautiful tribute to the book and I invite you to go and read it ………and weep as I have. Click Here for Her Marvelous Story
THE LAND LINE TELEPHONE
The land line telephone really has no purpose anymore. I can remember when I was young and we had the marvelous party line. Our ring was “two short and one long” I still have the marvelous work and wonder of the crank phone that was installed in our farm-house that is now oer 100 years old. Were times simpler then?
MUSIC
The Music Industry is dying a slow death. Over 40% of music purchased today is “catalogue items”meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. The music industry is full of greed and corruption. Record labels and radio conglomerates are self-destructing because innovative new music is not being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it.
Click HERE to watch a video documentary “Before the Music Dies”
TELEVISION
Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Revenues to networks are down dramatically. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.
THE “THINGS” THAT YOU OWN
Apple, Microsoft and Google are all finishing up their latest “Cloud Services” That means that when you turn on your computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies and documents. In the future these items will reside in “the cloud.” If you save something, it will be saved to the CLOUD. The good news is that you will be able to access any of your “stuff” from any handheld device; however, will you actually own it? Nostalgia will be remembering those days when you ran to the closet to pull out the photo album, grab a book from the shelf or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
I, for one, would like to go back to Kansas again……….
Tales and Travels of the Tinman 
I have yet to try a kindle or other such device to find out how wonderful they are. I don’t think we will be able to donate books to the third world, for example, in quite the same way if they go, though!
Re landline phones, I can’t see how soon they will disappear. Sure, I use mine less than I used to BUT that’s because I have a small child. When I want a long conversation, though, it is on the landline and people who don’t give me their number don’t get calls from me (i.e. I don’t want to pay extra for phoning their mobile). What a dinosaur I must be!!!
The Kindle is a handy tool, especially if you are traveling or something like that, but it can never replace books – not for my generation anyway. In 50 years or so I hope there are still people around who appreciate the book. Nice post.
I do too. Books are the thing that I want to survive the most.
One of my favorite quotes is – A room without books is like a body without a soul.So said Cicero.
So true! I have a kindle, as well, but I do Love books and want to keep passing them down to future generations. Emil, you outdid yourself again! Loved the post!
Thank you so much for your compliments. I am glad you enjoyed this.
I know that the days of print newspaper are numbered, but I will mourn when it is no longer available.
Yes there is nothing like the sound of cracking open a newspaper with a nice hot cup of coffee next to you.
I also love to pick up second-hand books, it’s the sifting through and searching for a wanted title that I love. I like to see books sitting on my bookshelves, the different colours and sizes and all waiting to be flicked through. Yes, they would be sadly missed.
Books really are amazing things, they hold so many different emotions for many of us……..really kind of marvelous.
I’ve tried using e-readers of different sorts before buying. I don’t like em. It’s not the same as reading a book. I like to curl up with a book, a good cup of tea or coffee and physically turn the page. I like the feel of a book in my hands. And I love old books… They are my weakness 🙂
yesssssssssssss the wonderful old books with that marvelous smell and the little notes and sometimes flowers pressed between the pages……….oh for joy!
Excellent post though it makes me a little sad but all so true. Alas, I won’t be around fifty years from now. In the meantime I must adapt as best I can. For now I have plenty of books! Thank you, Tin Man for the mention! I two would like to go back to Kansas.
I am glad to not be around 50 years from now. I will continue to curl up with my books hiding away from the technology. I will see you in Kansas my dear.
The books are the one that pains me the most too.
There is still something special about an old book, it makes the experience of reading even more special.
Thank you for another wonderful post, it makes you think with a touch of sorrow at what technology is doing to all of us
Thank you so much for your comments. It is true, we enjoy the benefits of all the technology, but it does come at a price.
In the realm of Sad but True —
Although I suspect that books will survive one way or another —
Noooo, not the Post Office. Do you have any idea how much cheaper it is to mail a package through the post office than through any other service? (A lot, especially small heavy things that fit in the flat rates.)
I’m wearing my ruby slippers, and I’m clicking heels as fast as I can, but even with all my thoughts of magic I can’t stop the madness. I could manage loosing most of the items above but I CAN NEVER BE WITHOUT BOOKS. The smell of books, the sound and feel of the pages, the excitement of cracking a new book or finding a new author. Books, it is almost what life is about. Virginia
Yes, can you imagine future generations going to a museum to see what books were!
I, for one, would miss books tremendously. I love leafing through the pages and there is nothing quite like the “smell” of a book.