Our Dependence on Technology
by H. David Blalock
copyright 1999


A recent court ruling determined that Microsoft has a monopoly on computer operating systems.

We needed a court to tell us this?

What the court did not tell us, and probably would never have the courage to admit, is that Microsoft's monopoly is based on predatory business practices, faulty products, and scarce to non-existent customer service.

In other words, the epitome of American business ecumen.

American businesses have never been totally ethically pure. That anti-trust law and truth in advertisement regulations exist is evidence of this. What we should ask ourselves is, when did we as consumers begin accepting substandard and malfunctioning equipment as a matter of course, with little or no complaint?

Windows (TM) is probably the worst operating system ever created. Designed in a hurry to meet a fledgling market, it was only through hype and propaganda that it remained on the market after the massive drawbacks to the system became evident. Windows (TM) systems crashed regularly, refused to accept nearly 40% of software designed for it, or simply refused to work altogether. After years of redesign and updating, it is still all too common for your PC to suddenly freeze on you, or that blasted grey box appear and tell you that some mysterious portion of your computer is misbehaving.

And you just reboot and go about your business as if this were totally acceptable?

If you were driving along the interstate in your brand new automobile, and it just suddenly stopped, wouldn't you be concerned? If it continued to do this on a regular basis, wouldn't you complain to the manufacturer? If a particular model of vehicle has a variety of problems, would you buy another next year?

Why do we put up with Windows (TM)?

Answer: we have no choice.

The American society has become so dependent on PCs, computers whose sole operating system is Windows (TM), that we would be paralyzed without them. Businesses would be forced to close, unable to reconvert to paper records, unable to even find personnel who can add three figures in their heads. Our public school systems proliferate this injustice on our children by demanding, not allowing, but demanding that the children use calculators in their math classes.

It used to be a joke to say that the cashier at the local grocery couldn't make change of a dollar without looking at the register.

Technology is not necessarily bad. Our blind and unreasoning acceptance of technology, our dependence on technology to provide for the simplest things in our lives, is. I am preparing this article on a word processor mounted on a Windows (TM) system. I will be submitting the article to Tandra.com through e-mail on the same computer. It is convenient, the website can process it more quickly than if I wrote it longhand and sent it snail mail. But I still have pencils and pens on my desk, still have envelopes, know where the post office is, can get there on foot if necessary.

How much of your checkbook register is computerized? Can you balance your checkbook without resorting to a calculator? Do you know how to get information on your account without going through the computer, or without going through the bank's automated answering system?

Is it any wonder we are anxious about the Y2K bug? We all sense that we are vulnerable to a computer rebellion, even one driven by a program fault decades old.

A fault kind of like the ones that still plague Microsoft products today.

End

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