The Resilience of Thoughts

Socio-technical systems and resiliency

Inadvertently this photo is evidence to the issue this post hopes to illustrate. The composition of the photo is legit, the cascade of technology real. The picture is not the one I intended to take and became the point, I did not expect. Many of the people that know me have expressed how atypical my relationship to technology is compared to the average person. Accurate and quite fair. One of my favorite quotes seems quite apropos, you will know it quite well “the pen is mightier than the sword” by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839.

I enjoy journals, pens, paper, stationary, books, and assorted miscellanea that accompany them. I fondly recall the instruments and routines from my classes in mechanical and architectural drawing. From the eraser bits to prevent scribbles to setup and layout of the paper. Alas, the last truly legible writing I’ve likely produced made was via lettering guides in those classes. The sound and feel of the graphite, the drag of a ball-point versus a rollerball. Too much fluidity and my writing is a mess, the same true of the fineness of the point of my pen. My quick loops and drawn scrawl are lost in the broad strokes of a wide-point.

My morning began by picking up the book which, due to its age (1968), is falling apart. After reading a bit and putting the pages carefully back within the loosened covers I realized I’ll soon get to take a stab at bookbinding, or at least a bit of it, to keep the book whole. A project I’m keen to try. I then started to capture some thoughts on the aptly named reMarkable which is a fantastic electronic reader/notebook. Within a few minutes of musing, I realized it needed to charge and pushed it aside after connecting it to my portable battery. I then grabbed for pen & paper. My effort finally broken by a phone call, thus the mobile in the foreground. When the call ended, looking at the table before me, considering this cascade of technology, my thoughts drifted to resiliency. Perhaps because of the slow by inevitable failure of my book, the spent nature of the battery, or likely both. How each of these systems differ in their capability to convey ideas across time - from one point forward to another and to others.

I appreciate that the reMarkable captures much of this appreciate - translated into their slim, elaborate tablet down to the way it responds to ambient light and the sound of the stylus across its smooth surface. What I do not like about devices like these are batteries and unfortunately, as I soon found out, this one was dead. Thus pushing it aside for the trusty pen & paper.

Seldom, I suspect, do we think of resiliency when we grab for pen and paper. In the broadest sense, this technology has been with us for thousands of years. Whether finger-painting on cave walls, carvings in clay, writing on papyrus or velum or the etch-a-sketch-esque beeswax slates of ancient Greece to the Chinese introduced paper - the written word is the oldest surviving form of knowledge we have. When we put a writing instrument to a surface we are continuing a practice for which science is only now beginning to appreciate the coevolutionary benefits for of this uniquely human practice. As I looked at my pen, I realized that like the battery, the pen also requires refilling. Whether a new one, if disposable, a cartridge, if replaceable, or a well if a fountain. None of which I manufacture.

As I set the phone down after my call, I wanted to capture the scene. I went to get my digital camera from another room. Since I hadn’t used it in a long time, defaulting as so many now to the camera on my phone instead. As I took the camera from its shelf I quickly gave it a test: no power. Well, no big surprise there. Fortunately this model supports external power which will work fine for this purpose. As I pop the small plastic cover off the ports I suddenly realize, its no a typical port. A deep breath, and a long exhale… and now a hunt for either a suitable power-cable or the charger for the battery.

Thankfully I had a good idea of where to start looking. Somewhere in a cardboard box of miscellaneous cables, manuals, antennas, adapters and convertors, or a junk drawer of seldom used electronic debris so common today. This process ended up taking more than an hour and resulted in, as you might guess, failure. Nowhere could I find the special type small USB cable I needed or the battery charger that the special LiIon battery maximized to fit within the grip of the camera. Bugger! So the picture ended up being taken with an old Apple device that uses the same charging cable my iPhone does. This is exactly why the EU decided to mandate USB-C as the standard form-factor for chargers on so many consumer electronics.

At some point we all depend upon technology and trade - an engrained reliance upon a system we seldom consider except for when it fails. In doing so, we’ve made a bargain few of us deliberately consider. As I looked at these pieces of technology I realized that what we tend to choose is potentially less about the technology itself as it is the resiliency we prefer. I do recognize the efficiency in carrying 10’s of books and 100’s of pdf papers on the reMarkable and enjoy using it - though it is almost never, my default. For me I enjoy the resilience that books, pens, and paper provide by not relying on a charged battery or software to access their value. I suspect my preference for them owes some debt to the deep, historic connection with their technology as well as a healthy, perhaps heavy, dose of my own nostalgia. However, in the end - they too are still products of a technical complexity and systems - whether we see them or not.