Tuesday, July 27, 2021

"Lo and Behold" / Oddly enough

 

Early this morning I watched a library copy of Werner Herzog's "Lo and Behold:  Reveries of the Connected World."  Fairly quickly I realized that I had seen it before.  This time I took extensive notes, including noting my body sensations and emotions -- nausea, feeling chilled, feeling scared, feeling fear, feeling chilled, feeling chilled, and feeling chilled.  

After watching the film in which all the "experts" laughed nervously when admitting how dependent we have become on something as truly fragile as the internet, I went to my laptop and HA!, I abruptly lost my internet connection for the second time in the past two weeks.  Two weeks ago, several thousand XFINITY subscribers on my side of our town had no internet for most of a weekday at a time when more and more people depend on the internet in order to be able to work from home, not to mention working from anywhere else.  So much now depends on an internet connection.  I began to wonder if widespread internet outages are the wave of the future, like fires and floods and water shortages.

This time, though, it seems that it was just my very own corner of the internet that was down.  A kind XFINITY tech named Grace (!) spent close to an hour with me on my cell phone doing diagnostic tests.  It was determined that she needed to send an XFINITY technician to my home, and it was arranged for a technician to appear within the hour.

Within a few seconds of thanking her for her help and clicking on "End Call" on my cell phone, the internet connection was mysteriously restored and I cancelled the tech visit.  

Hmmmm ...

This experience has not been reassuring.

*

Gonna save my money and rip it up!
Lo and behold! Lo and behold!
Lookin' for my lo and behold,
Get me outa here, my dear man!

(Bob Dylan, "Lo and Behold")

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I often wonder about our crazy attachment to the internet. If all the connections fail on one day through a cyber attack, how will we know? We stlll have a radio and an over-the-air TV without cable or satellite but an ancient antenna. Hopefully they will fill in the blanks and let us know what's up. We are living in interesting times.

Joared said...

Glad you got your net connection back as mysterious as its loss and then returning was. Yes, we are so dependent on technology -- and one that can be so undependable. I wonder, too, about our increasing dependency on electricity, other utilities that seem subject to not working and how long our culture would survive without their availability. Let's hope we never find out.

beth coyote said...

Being without the internet, even for a few days, was a visceral experience. I could feel my body, my mind, begin to slow down. Air smelt better, I could watch animals and birds live their lives. It was very very quiet. Settling in, sinking into the deep.

37paddington said...

The internet is the very definition of a double edged sword, both sides can cut you deep. I reflect sometimes that the internet has changed the world more than telephones, TV, and air travel ever did. Perhaps the only thing that forged greater connections, for good and ill, is the printing press. All very interesting to contemplate.