Uh, Oh, Computer?

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

My computer/iPad/iPhone/and now Apple Watch are the center of my digital life. But, let’s be honest: they are the center of my life, period. Everything I do is on or through these devices.

This is especially true of my creative life. I occasionally jot down handwritten notes, but for the most part I take notes on a device and print them out, maybe to scribble around them, maybe to copy and paste them into a larger document. I record and edit audio for podcasts or audio drama projects, entirely digitally. If a short film is in the works, the same is true for that process: digital from beginning to end.

I’ve often wondered what would (will?) happen if it all comes crashing down. Some of my ideas are encapsulated in a pilot script for a post-apocalyptic sitcom called Mind the Gap, where small pockets of society are being rebuilt; our focus is on a group that has a blend of older people (scientists, engineers, etc.) and younger people (former device junkies, parkour enthusiasts), and how they interact given the generation gap (hence the title). They survive by finding ways to restore parts of the old society. But our current “civilization,” given the incivility of people, would probably devolve into a civil war.

So let’s keep those servers up and running, since a flame war on social media is mostly safer than a shooting war in the streets. And be sure to back up your work.