We live in an automated world. From programming your TV to record your favorite shows to telling your coffee pot to have the morning brew ready for you, there’s not a whole lot that can’t happen automatically these days. Will cars drive us around automatically some day as depicted in movies like Total Recall and iRobot? Probably. Along these lines, I noticed yesterday — following Sunday’s spring ahead to Daylight Savings Time — that there were very few clocks in my house I had to manually change.
I’ve always been into gadgets and technology. Thus, growing up, it was always a treat for me to run around the house twice a year and adjust the time on any time-keeping device on which I could get my hands (watches, VCRs, digital clocks). This year, however, I found myself (so far) having adjusted only two clocks manually (the guest room clock and the kitchen wall clock).
I realized that most of the time-keeping devices in my life these days know what time it is without my intervention — my cell phone, the cable box downstairs, the cable box in my room, my computer, my email. All these machines with electronic brains know what time it is — and have been programmed to adjust to the American convention of changing the time twice a year.
It’s fascinating, really, this world of automation in which we live. Younger generations will likely take it for granted.
If you missed this story to which I linked the other day, check it out: Spring Forward Faster is an argument for keeping Daylight Savings permanent, or at least extending it by a week in the spring and a week in the fall to conserve energy and reduce evening traffic accidents.
I realized this morning while walking the dogs that it’s now warm enough to go outside without gloves. Spring is finally here! Only small traces of snow remain here and there.
