Technology

Here at work, the elevator is broken.  It seems that the circuit board fried itself and we're waiting on a replacement.  It's not generally a big deal, as the building is only two floors and most folks use the stairs anyway.

So, one of the tech guys asked about it, and I told him that the circuit board was fried.  Then I asked him why he didn't just build a new circuit board.  He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Yeah," I told him, "back in the Dark Ages, when I was in high school, we'd go down to Radio Shack, get a piece of circuit board plastic and build our own circuits.  We'd use wire, capacitors, resistors, and a solder iron.  We used to make simple radios from parts."

Low tech still works.  We don't know how long the elevator will be "down", but I'm sure that low tech could fix it.

Speaking of which:

Recently, my son and I were talking, and someone mentioned a common kitchen match.  Grandson, six years old, had no clue..  He's a smart kid, a whiz with his tablet, but he had no idea about proably the most important breakthrough in the history of the human condition.  Fire.  When man learned to harness fire, it was huge.  Everything else, all new technology flowed from that discovery.

Grandson now knows how to operate a standard kitchen match.  It's very low technology, but it works, and it's still a life-changing tool.