I have an Internet service that provides me with trivial questions on a daily basis. This was the latest one... "Who invented the cell phone?" My answer was correct "Martin Cooper". The details are unimportant, but it was my comment in regards to its impact on us needs serious consideration.

To wit:

This is one of the inherit problems with technology... once we have it and adapt it to our lives, we cannot live without it. Technology is a wonderful servant, but at the same time we can fall victim to it as well. A good example are machines that can sustain life, but cannot allow us to live a normal life, so why have it when there is no more to do than just pull the plug?

Life dependent on a machine is not life, because then we become on the same level as the machine. Machines have no feelings, no aspirations, no love, no morals and no god. Yes, I have a few of these machines, but they are used as tools and not having my life so firmly attached to them that my life would not end if I should lose them. It is not inconceivable that the suicide rate of teenagers would greatly increase if they ever lost their cell phones for more than perhaps 3 days? 

More than 50 years ago, it was said that we are an extension cord away from disaster. That statement can now be extended to losing everything from one EMP attack, for which it would take a minimum of two years to recover. I can hardly believe that there is a "Plan B", if such an event took place... that is how much we are so dependent upon these machines and their loss would bring us back to the 19th century.

A long time ago an experiment had taken place; where in one particular neighborhood was asked to give up their television sets for just one month. That experiment quickly ended after one week!