Thoughts on Technology

Technology feels like a great trouble when it comes to telling stories.  The more technology advances, the harder it becomes to tell timeless stories.  If Romeo and Juliet could have texted each other, their story would have ended quite differently.  But to write a modern day Romeo and Juliet, the audience would berate it for its stupidity (why didn't they just text each other?).

Some stories, though, have used the same conventions with different technologies for decades.  In cop shows, any detective can get any message by picking up their cell phone.  Fifteen years ago, cops could get any message by getting a page on their beepers.  Thirty years ago, cops could get any message by having another officer find them and announce that there is a message.

Science fiction must have the hardest times.  Hard science (being very descriptive on how technology works) tends to look goofy when our real knowledge increases (radiation doesn't give superpowers; give up).  Technology ends up being futuristic versions of modern technology, so we have very old science fiction that uses supercomputers that still use magnetic tape.  Heck, we still have science fiction with things like floppy disks or CDs.  Nobody in the future will be using either of those.  We just haven't progressed far enough for it to be laughable yet.

Fantasy seems diametrically opposed to technology, but it also has magic, which is just the softest science out there.  Worlds like the one of Harry Potter amuse me because they don't have technology, but have magical equivalents to every piece of tech we could want.  And so I ask myself, why the heck not just buy a laptop and email each other instead of sending owls to one another?  of course, there is some reason for it (something about electricity not working in magical realms), but really, it's just any excuse to not have redundancy or show that magic is largely useless once technology has reached a certain level.

I find myself usually wanting to write in a throwback time.  Something along the lines of the feudal or manorial system.  People can farm and build homes out of stone and wood, but no gun powder, no electricity, no fossil fuels.  I like these worlds because anything that has to be done has to be done by people.  There's no automation and no telecommuting (at least not with any kind of speed).  It also prevents me from having to deal with frustrating questions like "why didn't they just text each other?"