h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

the telephone has been destroying the civilisation as we no it, people don't get out anymore they just sit indoors, pretty soon people will never see anyone else again!!!!

Psychologically, the telephone has become necessary to enable people to talk to each other. In fact the word telephone now means any bit of electronic filled plastic which by gently heating the brain prevents people physically having to meet to have a conversation.

The telephone is being used to connect computers so people don't even have to talk. They can write emails and stuff. Oddly enough, it was the telephone which killed off writing in the first place.

...but the great thing about e-mails is that you have to WRITE them and need some degree of literacy to make yourself understood. So the telephone connects us but we WRITE to each other! Hurrah!

The ideal communication method should be devoid of any effort, including thought.

Otherwise, how will our democracy survive?

But the definition of democracy that people show what they think and then selects the thought that most people have.
Then everybody must think in that way.

Exept you. You don't think.

Oh great, another interesting site goes to hell in a handbag!

Staying indoors all the time? We will come to that soon enough and what's so bad about that?
Telecommuting would save the planet the stess of millions of cars/buses/trains/etc...I'd never
have to worry about parking,bad drivers,random shootings,panhandlers,pollution...yeah I could
learn to love that.Go out twice a year for a vacation to some theme park..Hell at that point the out
doors would be one big theme park! At home with my cats,dogs,my computers & the girlfriend.
Climate controlled Nirvana.No need to mess with a million total strangers who have to mess with a
million total strangers (like me!). Flip on the ol' VR glasses and take me a virtual walk through a virtual
park..ride a virtual bike through a virtual town and nod hi to all the avatars...

Far from destroying conversation, I now get people phoning me up to ask me "Did you get my e-mail? 'cos you haven't replied yet?" So i ask them what was in it, give them the answer over the phone and don't have to write back.... easy !

No, the mobile 'phone is liberating. I can ring to advise friends that I'm going to see of any changes on the way, needn't book restaurant tables in Calais till I'm on the Shuttle. For sure, the one time I lent my 'phone to my partner, my car broke down in the middle of nowhere. (Thank you telepathic and kind AA man, who came out of nowhere while I was trying to work out which forsaken direction to go in to find a 'phone..

No, the mobile 'phone is liberating. I can ring to advise friends that I'm going to see of any changes on the way, needn't book restaurant tables in Calais till I'm on the Shuttle. For sure, the one time I lent my 'phone to my partner, my car broke down in the middle of nowhere. (Thank you telepathic and kind AA man, who came out of nowhere while I was trying to work out which forsaken direction to go in to find a 'phone..

More than likely is that you, using your computer right now, could be outside right now at a party away from your computer. BUT, shock of shocks people now have phones that they can take to parties, or any where else ( except planes) in case they need to get a call , not important enough to stay at home to get.

Maybe technology is changing the world as we know it but that isn't
necessarily a bad thing! With all the advances in communication
maybe people will take the hint and start talking with each other.
Then maybe the world will become a better place??
Besides knowledge is power, and technology allows for the
distribution of information to be worldwide and instaneous, power
to the people.

Surely, with all the advances in telecommunications, people won't bother talking to each other any more? I mean, in a couple of years we'll probably have TelePath for Windows, so we can just 'think' images at people. Oh well, forward the revolution.

Surely everyone must realise by now that phones have taken over the world............why even the oldest profession in the world can now be conducted over the phone (0898......)

Telephones and e-mail actually make me go outdoors. I haven't got a phone in my flat, so I use the phone box down the road. And the computer cluster at university is 3 miles away so on both occasions I am forced to venture out. And nearly get run over by a bus. Maybe the outdoors isn't as good as we first thought.