Published in the April 2-15, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Marty Cheek

Marty Cheek

Marty Cheek

I would like to personally apologize to everyone on this planet for accidentally starting a series of events that will eventually result in the end of humanity. The culture of hyper-communication now destroying global civilization is entirely my fault. I’m truly sorry.

My mistake happened in a private conference suite on the top floor of the Ritz Hotel in London. The year was 1993 and I worked in London as the European bureau chief for Edittech International, a high-tech industry news service. That morning, I attended an unveiling by Apple of a “revolutionary” new personal digital assistant device called a Newton.

I was sitting at a table with a dozen other journalists— I distinctly recall the attractive reporter in the short skirt from the Financial Times sitting at my right playing footsies with the back of my heel while Apple’s public relations shill blathered on a laundry list of the PDA’s features. After the presentation, reporters asked techie questions. I asked a wild question: What might happen if a PDA could be connected to a cellular network and users can email other people, even retrieve information from the World Wide Web, from anywhere in the world?

An uncomfortable hush filled the room at such crazy speculation. Finally, an Apple engineer gave a bland answer, the gist of which my idea was “Star Trek” science fiction and it would be many years before that capability was available in pocket-sized devices.

There is no doubt in my mind that that engineer then traveled back to Apple’s lab in Cupertino and started the project that 10 years later resulted in the wildly-successful iPhone. I’m still waiting for my millions for giving you the iPhone idea, Apple.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think high-tech communication gadgets are super cool. When I worked for Edittech, I learned the lingo enough to fake an intelligent conversation with experts.

But I’m deeply concerned that people are becoming dangerously dependent on their cellphones, iPhones, iPads and other communication devices. I know people who can’t bear to be away from their devices — a sign of tech-addiction.

Morgan Hill Life’s editor often cajoles me for the fact I have an old-model cell phone, one I rarely carry and rarely use. Apparently, as the publisher of a newspaper and website, I’m expected to be linked to the information leash like everyone else. But honestly, it’s not very often people need to reach me that quickly. And I have a hunch that’s true for most of us. For most, this perceived need for hyper-connectivity is an illusion.

As telecom technology advances, one day people won’t think twice about having neural surgery to wet-wire themselves to the World Wide Web. And as humans merge with machines to become “humanchines,” science fiction will become science fact and the world as we know it will end with a digital whimper.