JOINT 2ND PLACE
The Technophobe’s Guide to the Digital Age
Douglas Adams had it right. In his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series he perfectly encapsulates the way I feel about technology. I am one of those poor Earthlings who ‘still thinks digital watches are a pretty neat idea,’1 and wonders why no one has noticed that technology is only making life more complicated? Adams’s infamous Nutrimatic-Drinks-Dispenser ‘invariably delivers a liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.’1 And isn’t it true? Machines can’t even get tea right.
When the best part of technology is the ‘sense of achievement you get from getting it to work at all,’2 something is wrong. Despite having been born slap-bang in the middle of the digital age, …