“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -Arthur C. Clarke

Living with three teenagers and growing an internet business has kept me somewhat current with technology. Unlike many adults in my age range, I can see my way in and out of most social media, although I don’t spend much time there. Online friends are nice, but I have long preferred 3D relating as a way of experiencing the people I love and want to know. Still, I have carried a smart phone for years and been as guilty as the next person for the regular checking of the device and interrupting my physical life by virtual distractions. I didn’t know how to do many things on my old Blackberry, but I could do the essential communicating.

If phone technology was a true metaphor for pace of progress in life, we would have long figured out how to feed the world population and maybe even made big gains in ending our tendency towards war. Alas, phone technology and the remarkable expansive range of things you can do with a miniature device in the palm of your hand is not far from magical. I finally caved today and am waiting to be awed by the new Droid Fascinate phone. It was two for one, which means my teenage son can learn the phone and teach it to me for only one additional data charge.

Truth be told, new technology is a bit frightening for me. The one week learning curve of youth can stretch into months to forever for me. I still can’t really remember basic steps of uploading photos without a brief tutorial and my eldest son belittling my techno lameness. It might be some fear of wrecking something unknowingly that has happened before. John Tudor once said, “Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology.” This pretty well sums it up for me, the more I get about technology the more it seems to run things.

I don’t watch television and rarely sit through an entire film, so the idea of streaming so much entertainment through a phone is not very appealing, although I am guessing this is a high motivator for my teen trainer. Will this new technology actually open up new and more efficient ways for me to work my loveology media? Whether it helps me invent my new app remains to be seen. One feature, of high quality instant video that can be loaded directly to a Youtube channel from the phone may well be the start of something very edgy and cool in my future.

But really, if we can make a phone like that and offer it buy one, get one free, how is it possible that we haven’t managed to feed everyone on the planet? Stay tuned, positivity quest live on Youtube might be in our future….