Barry Evans
Barry Evans

Modern (as of today) civilization has a number of advantages that those who came before didn’t.  When that is said it must be remembered that the newer generations have all the wonders that they do because the generations that came before invented them.  Let us hope that they do as well for coming generations.  After all each generation has to be able to give tall tales to younger generations about how hard they had it.  I have mentioned about going through high snow drifts for a couple of miles to get to school in Pennsylvania, haven’t I.

Despite all the good things that there are there is still frustration.  As I write this the main TV is telling us that there is no signal.  I called the cable company but the robot lady will not let me talk to an agent.  The Robot Lady said that there is a problem in our area which will be fixed within a couple of hours and that is why we can’t get a signal.  That is all well and good for her to say, but the fact is that the TV in the bedroom works fine – which is a good thing as my dear wife has a program she must watch.  If the bedroom TV hadn’t worked, we would probably have had to go to a motel where the TV did work.

The parameter being set that it is not something outside that has to be fixed, but the fact that Robot Lady will not admit it.  She stated emphatically that there was no need to talk to an agent as they will not be able to speed anything up. Thus, there was no way that I could convince her to let me.  Robot Ladies can be very stubborn and raising my level of frustration means nothing to her.  Someone recently sent me a cartoon.  It showed a couple in a restaurant and there is a robot dressed up as a server.  However, the robot is complaining that he no longer works there as he has been replaced by a talking menu – which is telling him to get lost.  I hope that the cable robot lady gets replaced by something, perhaps a new version that will listen to logic.

Actually that is one thing that the newest generation can do for future generations.  They can develop robots that will listen and be able to discern that not everything is black or white, but that there can be differences in a situation.  That would give the present generation guy something to tell his grandkids about the “olden days”.  He can point out that they had to go to a specific room to watch TV, and if something went wrong he had to talk to a very dumb robot who did not understand the problem. The grandkid will be amazed at the whole matter and then tell his friends about the big “whopper” his grandpa had just told him.

After all the grandkid was growing up with robots that you didn’t have to tell what to do, they just knew how to do it. He also knew that he just needed to press a button on his wrist pad and a program that he wanted to watch would show up before his eyes no matter where he was.  Going to just one room was obviously something that his grandpa made up to make him think that times were tough in the olden days.

Obviously, it is not known today what will happen down the road when advances are to be considered.  However, maybe the frustrations of those who live then will be less.  Nah, probably just be different.  Everyone will all still be human you know!

Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for