"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
.....
They navigated with a compass and a sextant, which for us GPS addicts
is almost as astonishing as flying 19 hours over-water in a 1919
(well: pseudo 1919) open cockpit biplane.

One of the by-products of the modern world is that it has reduced the
opportunities for the great masses to get their hands dirty, become
inquisitive, and learn things.

60 years ago, nearly every car owner in North America had to tinker with it
at one time or another, if only to change a tire.

Every pilot had to learn some serious navigation skills, especially for IMC
or featureless terrain.

Today, the relative number of people with either of these skills out there
in the mass population is much smaller. Arguably, the skills are no longer
necessary... but I wonder if it also means that the population's collective
desire to *learn* may be diminishing... "Why bother, somebody else's
technology will take care of it" ? ? ?

I'd like to be around another 50 or 100 years from now, to see how this
plays out... How will us masses evolve? How dependant will our lives become
on the few, powerful keepers of technology? Will another Steve Wozniak rise
to completely upset the course of technological history, or are we past
that; will such breakthroughs remain only in the domain of the large and
the powerful?

60 years ago, my father happily solved his worries by his own initiative...a
good shot of self-distilled potato brew, straight up.

(Homeland-Security 1950's style... the police would browbeat local
merchants into telling them who was buying excessive amounts of sugar).

Today, self-medication is frowned upon and I am supposed to rely on someone
else's technology: I think its called Eli Lilly???

That would make we worry even more, about becoming dependant on the
technology.

I will think about it some more after this bottle of Seagram's is empty.

;-)

From north of the border, all the best for July 4th to those of, in, and
from the USA. Stay Safe!