Becoming cyborgs

Have you thought about how dependent we are becoming on technology? A human who depends on mechanical devices for some physiological functions is called a cyborg. Are we all becoming cyborgs?

One day I went to the dry cleaners to pick up a quilt we had left there. The young lady who fetched the quilt told me the cost of the cleaning--$14.60. I handed her a $20-dollar bill and she apologized because the cash registers were not working. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," she said as she reached for a pocket calculator. "No, the old-fashioned way would be to do it in your head," I replied. She laughed and said, "Yeah, right!"

Yes, we have become increasingly dependent on technology in the last century. But that has been true of human development from the beginning. Who in the industrialized world can look up at the stars at night and know immediately what direction is north? Out of a hundred Westerners, who can weave a bowl out of reeds tight enough to carry liquids?