2005 06 -- Inventions

The Downside of Inventions

Thomas Edison was revered by many people for his inventiveness. Recently I met a man who met Edison. And that got me thinking about inventiveness and inventions. Inventions have done many things for many people. Once something useful is invented, there is no turning back. Some items are simple. Some are complex. Many have unintended consequences. This musing will be about the “bad” side of inventions.

Take the phonograph, for example. Most people would say it is a good invention. While that may be true in some ways, in several other ways I disagree! The phonograph and its many subsequent iterations has become a substitute for the real thing. Real music, played by real people. Real people making music just for the joy of making music. The world being entertained rather than entertaining. Some people are naturally better at creativity, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us from trying. Whistling used to be commonplace. Rarely do I hear anyone whistle any more. Instead, they would be interrupting the constant stream of music being blasted at us by a radio, public address system or worse yet, music on hold. Even today, I was stopped at a stop light and a big rumble came up boom, boom, boom behind me. What an awful invention, that phonograph!

After I perform a particularly nice violin piece, well meaning people often come up to me and ask, “Did you record that?” My answer is usually, “No”. Out of courtesy, I refrain from explaining. Usually I don’t plan to record it. If you once think that a recording is the same as creating the music, you’ve taken away the reason to perform again. In addition, I actually did hear it the first time, albeit from the perspective of a performer.

The invention of the camera, and thus photography in its many iterations, is much the same as the phonograph. To look at an array of images is an attempt to substitute for the real thing. Perhaps that is why pornography is attractive to some. Viewing pictures does not take the commitment that real life does, just as listening to a recording doesn’t take the same commitment as creating music does. Thus, photographs become an escape from reality rather than a capturing of reality. It is tempting to think that if we could just freeze our special moments “forever” on film or digitally, we would truly have preserved the moment. That is why thousands of dollars are spent on wedding photographers. The fact is that the only important moment is now. If we try to hold on to a special moment, an instant later, we have already lost it. Besides, no matter what technology we have used to try to recreate that moment, over time it has always deteriorated in quality regardless of the storage medium.

We somehow think that if we can see a photograph of a person, that we get to know that person. Recently my sister Marilyn converted some of our father’s old photographic slides to digital images stored on a compact disc. I am thankful for her efforts, as it allows wide distribution to the family. We can now view people we’ve known and remember moments we shared even if those people are deceased. However, most of the photographs are posed. So the glimpse into the past is distorted by the stilted happy nature of the poses. If you knew of the lives and challenges each of those people faced, you’d have a very different appreciation of who those people were.

Writing too, has the same limitations. The inventions of pen, paper, the typewriter, the printing press and the keyboard allow people to make written observations which can be shared by many people. The happenings reported are not the same as reality however. In fact, when I distribute my views of shared events, often comments are received back…”I remember differently”, or “That’s not how it really happened”. Stated simply, my written reality is only valid for me.

The press has the same limitation with the added complication that in order to exist, there must be readers. Consequently, to pique interest, it is often the extreme which is portrayed, not the mundane events of life. As a result, the limits of extreme are constantly pushed. If you read the newspaper every day, you’re not really reading news, you’re being enticingly titillated by bizarre behavior, extreme positions, fear of attack or disaster or the ultimate curiosity about death. And that curiosity leads to an acceptance that what you’re reading is truth…a dangerous assumption.

Radio is another invention with a dark side. Just as in the written word, radio pretends to portray reality in a deceptive manner. If radio broadcasts music, the same fault as the phonograph emerges. If radio broadcasts news, the same fault as the written press emerges. If radio broadcasts talk, the need for market share dictates that the host must engage as many people as possible which leads producers to select talent who are abrupt, abrasive and/or entertaining. That is not a particularly good way to get at the truth.

Television and motion pictures are perhaps the best we’ve come to preserving reality in media other than real life. Like opera, these media are captivating in the stimulation of all the senses save touch, taste and smell. Watching the screen and listening to the speakers gives the impression that you really know the actor. What distorts this medium, however is the editing room. Life is not packaged neatly in little bundles precisely designed to fit between commercials. Life unfolds slowly and awkwardly—giving way to dilemmas of competence and incompetence, success and failure, rewards and challenges, joy and misery. The editing room cuts from one scene to the next while real life is a drawn out continuum.

Conflict which is inevitable in real life is made bigger than life on the screen. And when that is broadcast into millions of homes, the result is a distorted view of reality known as the availability bias. When information is readily available, the perception mechanism we all have leads us to believe that such information will affect us personally, even if that is not true. That is why after an earthquake somewhere in the world is reported on the news, some of my customers will call up and buy earthquake insurance. The risk hasn’t changed, only their perception due to the availability of the news information.

I could go on almost infinitely about the negative impact of other inventions. So, to sort out my thoughts and avoid rambling, poetry provides a creative medium to cover more ground in a more consise manner.

Inventions—Good and Bad


Beer—Gives pleasure, masks feelings
Light bulb—Lights dark, longer hours
Television—Entertains, stifles thought
Computer—Eases work, demands time
Laser—Cures blindness, guides missles
Chain Saw—Cuts trees, denudes forests
Radio—Sells product, creates conformity
Electricity—Eases work, electrocutes folks
Automobile—Moves things, maims people
Street sweeper—Clears gutters, Pollutes air
Calendar—Organizes time, forces schedules
Atom Bombs—End wars, mistrust continues
Disposable diaper—Clears mess, fills dumps
Phonograph—Saves sound, chokes creativity
Lock—Protects property, stimulates isolation
Books—Proliferates ideas, perpetuates myths
Airplane—Shrinks distance, destroys cultures
Insurance—Indemnifies loss, encourages fraud
Stock Market—Produces capital, kindles greed
Camera—Saves images, produces pornography
Nuclear Power—Energizes cities, produces waste
Password—Keeps confidentiality, complicates life
Printing press—Conveys information, consumes trees
Government—Helps downtrodden, fosters dependance

©Frank Bliss 2005 All rights reserved.20050601