October 6, 2009
High Tech – High Touch
High-tech/ high-touch is a formula used to describe the way we respond to technology. What happens is that whenever a new technology is introduced, a counterbalancing human response is needed. So, the more “high-tech” the more “high touch.”
The parallel growth of high-tech and high-touch took place during the last three decades, a period that appeared chaotic but had it own rhythm and sense. The alienation of the 1950’s was a response to the most intensely industrialized period in history. In the 60’s we mass-marketed the products of the past industrial era. Then high-tech was everywhere. High-touch resulted alongside the technology invasion.
Now, high-tech/ high-touch has truly come of age. Technology and our human potential are the two great challenges and adventures facing humankind today. The great lesson we must learn from the principle of high-tech/ high-touch is a modern version of the ancient Greek ideal “balance.”
Technological Innovations/ Star Wars Saga
The appropriate response to more technology is not to stop it, but to accommodate it, to respond to it, and to shape it. In the interplay of technology and our reaction, technological progress does not proceed along a straight course, it proceeds as part of lurching dynamic, complicated patterns, and processes. The technology of the heart transplants and brain scanners led to a new interest in the family doctor and neighborhood clinics. Jet planes have led to more meetings. The high technology we put into our hospitals increases the popularity of home care products.
Meanwhile, the immensely popular Star Wars saga is very high tech – high touch. It portrays a contest between characters who have used technology within human control and scale. The good guys are not anti-technology: When Luke Skywalker flies in the final run, the force with him; he turns off his computer, but not his engine.
The Need to Be Together
The more technology we introduce into society, the more people will aggregate, will want to be with other people: movies, rock concerts, shoppings. Shopping malls for example, are now the third most frequented space in our lives, following home and workplace.
After the invention of huge screens, a report was issued suggesting that there would almost be no movie theaters in the United States. What they didn’t understand was high-tech/ high-touch. People don’t go to movies to just see a movie. They go there to laugh and cry with 100 more other people. It is an event. Perhaps it is the high-touch need to be together that enables us to tolerate the high levels of density we experience in the crowded cities.
Because we want to be with each other, few people will choose to work at home in his electronic house. Very few will be willing to stay home and tap out messages to the office. It is good for emergencies to stay home and during certain periods but for most part, we seek the high-touch of the office.
Living in a High-Tech World
Most of us want to develop our own ways to compensate for the high tech-influence of the computers in our work and environment. To do this, we need to be out with nature too often. In the information world, we will want to use our hands and bodies more often to balance the constant use of mental energies at work. We can see this already in the popularity of gardening, cooking, and home repair.
Living in a high-tech world indeed requires high-touch wisdom. High-tech will not totally solve technological fantasies like waiting for the magical pill to enable us to eat all the fattening food we want and not gain weight; burn all the gasoline we want and not pollute air, or live as immoderately as we choose, and not contact cancer, heart disease or aids. But of course, high touch will.
The equation of “high-tech”/ high-touch” reminds us that inner knowledge and wisdom are still the primary requirements of the most advanced technology in the evolution of human race.
Rose Flores Martinez
http://rfvietnamrose09.blogspot.com
References: New York Times, 1981
Colin Norman writes in “Futurist”
Megatrends, John Naisbitt
Check out ezine articles
High Tech – High Touch
High-tech/ high-touch is a formula used to describe the way we respond to technology. What happens is that whenever a new technology is introduced, a counterbalancing human response is needed. So, the more “high-tech” the more “high touch.”
The parallel growth of high-tech and high-touch took place during the last three decades, a period that appeared chaotic but had it own rhythm and sense. The alienation of the 1950’s was a response to the most intensely industrialized period in history. In the 60’s we mass-marketed the products of the past industrial era. Then high-tech was everywhere. High-touch resulted alongside the technology invasion.
Now, high-tech/ high-touch has truly come of age. Technology and our human potential are the two great challenges and adventures facing humankind today. The great lesson we must learn from the principle of high-tech/ high-touch is a modern version of the ancient Greek ideal “balance.”
Technological Innovations/ Star Wars Saga
The appropriate response to more technology is not to stop it, but to accommodate it, to respond to it, and to shape it. In the interplay of technology and our reaction, technological progress does not proceed along a straight course, it proceeds as part of lurching dynamic, complicated patterns, and processes. The technology of the heart transplants and brain scanners led to a new interest in the family doctor and neighborhood clinics. Jet planes have led to more meetings. The high technology we put into our hospitals increases the popularity of home care products.
Meanwhile, the immensely popular Star Wars saga is very high tech – high touch. It portrays a contest between characters who have used technology within human control and scale. The good guys are not anti-technology: When Luke Skywalker flies in the final run, the force with him; he turns off his computer, but not his engine.
The Need to Be Together
The more technology we introduce into society, the more people will aggregate, will want to be with other people: movies, rock concerts, shoppings. Shopping malls for example, are now the third most frequented space in our lives, following home and workplace.
After the invention of huge screens, a report was issued suggesting that there would almost be no movie theaters in the United States. What they didn’t understand was high-tech/ high-touch. People don’t go to movies to just see a movie. They go there to laugh and cry with 100 more other people. It is an event. Perhaps it is the high-touch need to be together that enables us to tolerate the high levels of density we experience in the crowded cities.
Because we want to be with each other, few people will choose to work at home in his electronic house. Very few will be willing to stay home and tap out messages to the office. It is good for emergencies to stay home and during certain periods but for most part, we seek the high-touch of the office.
Living in a High-Tech World
Most of us want to develop our own ways to compensate for the high tech-influence of the computers in our work and environment. To do this, we need to be out with nature too often. In the information world, we will want to use our hands and bodies more often to balance the constant use of mental energies at work. We can see this already in the popularity of gardening, cooking, and home repair.
Living in a high-tech world indeed requires high-touch wisdom. High-tech will not totally solve technological fantasies like waiting for the magical pill to enable us to eat all the fattening food we want and not gain weight; burn all the gasoline we want and not pollute air, or live as immoderately as we choose, and not contact cancer, heart disease or aids. But of course, high touch will.
The equation of “high-tech”/ high-touch” reminds us that inner knowledge and wisdom are still the primary requirements of the most advanced technology in the evolution of human race.
Rose Flores Martinez
http://rfvietnamrose09.blogspot.com
References: New York Times, 1981
Colin Norman writes in “Futurist”
Megatrends, John Naisbitt
Check out ezine articles
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