When the Chief Leaves the Station

Ihde suggests that technology tends to recede into the back of people's minds when they use that technology. That we in a sense completely forget about that technology, or tool, while we use it. Ihde goes on to suggest that the only time that technology enters into our minds, while we are using it, is when that technology no longer functions that way it is supposed to function. Our pens that we use to take notes with doesn't seem to matter until that pen starts to write sloppily or it starts to run out of ink. Our computers don't really enter into our minds, until they freeze or get a virus (sometimes all to often). The glasses on my nose doesn't enter into my thought processes until the lenses start to dirty. We don't think about the bathroom faucet until it starts to drip. We hardly think about our cars that we drive everywhere until the "check engine" light starts to glow on the dash, at which point we start to panic and take it into the shop as soon as possible. All of this reminds me a another great Star Trek episode, this time it comes from Deep Space Nine. There was an episode in the 6th season in which Chief O'Brian goes on a secret assignment for Starfleet Intelligence. While the Chief is off the station everything seems to go wrong. The turbo-lifts stop 3/4ths of the way to their destination. All the station computers seem to go array. And to make matters worse for the crew of the station all the replicators go off-line making lunch time a real choir. I think that it is pretty interesting that this placing of technology on the "back burner" happens in our minds. I guess we get distracted with the task at hand, and the technology just becomes a tool that we unknowingly use to accomplish said task. Perhaps if we just give the technologies that we use a little more attention then our technology wont break as often. A good check at the amount of oil in our cars never hurt anyone. A virus/spyware scan of our computers never hurt either. Yes, doing these seemingly routine check-ups on everyday things may be time consuming, but in the long run is it worth catching and fixing a problem before it grows into a major breakdown rather than waiting for the breakdown to happen and being stuck with an expensive and even more time consuming repair job that could have been avoided in the first place.