Is History Repeating?

After reading Rainbows End, it made me question the technology in our own futures. 50 years from now, will our world be run by technology, or will we hit a period of rebellion, much like the period of Romanticism after the Industrial Revolution? Many of us have been asking questions about what technology does to society, and whether we agree with it or not. It seems like this is a question that has been asked many times before. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

"The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but loses so much support of muscle. He has got a fine Geneva Watch, but he has lost the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His notebooks impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue."

I think that no matter what day and age we are living in, we are going to question the direction the world is going in. While reading Anne of Green Gables this week, I noticed that the main character, Anne, sees so much beauty and mystery in the world. Even though her surroundings and experiences are constantly changing, she has a firm foundation in the things she believes in. I think that if we apply our own principles to everything we learn, then we don't need to fear how things are changing around us. We will learn new skills, forget ones that are no longer applicable, but no matter what happens, we are adaptable. I think Anne's spirit of adventure is exactly the inspiration I need in order to conquer the new digital age.