Help - my shirt has an Owner’s Manual!!!

It was probably 10 years ago. I had bought an “outdoor hiking shirt” with some special something so that I wouldn’t end up like a prune after days in the great outdoors. OK, that sounds good. But low and behold when I unpacked it an Owner’s Manual fell out! Not a simple care and feeding tag, but pages and pages of how to use the shirt, what vents to open when, the best wicking strategy for a variety of conditions, UV conversion charts for various altitudes and probably recycling considerations - but I may be exaggerating, or not.

It was the beginning of the end of innocence, or maybe I should say simplicity. Nowadays EVERYTHING is not just what it is, but a veritable smorgasbord of features, functions, and menus. And each and every device is different. Hence the owner’s manuals, the learning curves, and the frustration of simply making it work.

Recently we were over at a friend’s house for dinner. The owner hadn’t shown up yet so we ventured to turn on the music. There was an amazing remote control that had been programmed to control everything. After 10 minutes of traversing menus we all gave up and opened the media cabinet. It was 6 feet tall and jammed with electronics. Another ten minutes and we resorted to just banging pots and pans.

In the good old days you found the record player, slapped the vinyl down and hit PLAY. If it was fancy there was a treble and bass nob. Fini!

And its not just stereos. I recently moved and it was 30 minutes figuring out the programming on the stove. (I feel a real rant coming on but I think you get the drift, and have stories yourself and are really sick of them anyway.)

It is a maddening, insane, headlong rush into complexity. Somehow more is better. If you have more in your life, it is better. If there is more in your product, you sell more (and thus have more money and thus are better). Now people, let’s pause for a moment. (Pause what’s that!? - I thought it was just a button-option on the music delivery device.)

Machines are invented to save us from labor that we wish not to perform. They are to assist our life experience, giving us more time to do whatever we wish. So how’s that working out for everyone? Enjoying that last email at 11PM!?

It’s really classic - we have become trapped by the machines that we created to liberate ourselves. And is life really any better? Busier? Yes. More productive? Debatable.

It is, in the end, just a perfect reflection on society’s love affair with the ego. The Ego (there I capitalized it - EGO loves that attention) is all about more = better. More for me means I am substantiated, and more better than you. And if it means less for you, so be it. The fascination with ever increasing complexity takes people ever outward. It numbs the soul and dumbs the spirit, while our running shoes have computers. I’m waiting for electronically controlled forks that adjust the rigidity so that they become pliable when chewing so we never have an unpleasant dining experience.

Just because we can build it, should we?