Well, of course we like flashy shiny new things that make noise, but I think that's because of what these things do and allow us to do. Cell phones were relatively rare in the US when I went to Japan in 2001, but when I came back in 2005, if someone didn't have a cell phone, they were an anachronism. Cell phones allow us to do so many things. Who remembers going to a mall, and saying "OK everyone meet up at the entrance in 45 minutes" and then having to sweep the entire store for someone who got lost? How many lives have been saved by people being able to call 911 or a friend or family member from almost anywhere?

Is that a change in the human condition? I think so. Does it change us as humans? That's debatable. How many of us call someone when we could send a text? Who writes an actual letter when we can send an e-mail? I think technology has drastically changed the way people in society interact. When I was deployed, my then-girlfriend set me letters. It's easy to send a short e-mail, but when you write a letter, it really doesn't make sense to just write a few lines and drop it in the envelope and send it off. I still have all the letters she sent to me, and cherish each and every one of them.

Open question: When's the last time you got a hand-written letter in the mail?

Much of what we know of figures in history is from their letters, or letters from their contemporaries speaking about them. What will historians say 150 years from now about how people today thought and acted? Well, Congress is archiving Twitter. There's a lot of internet archives. But what medium does one have that's easily storable and accessible after death, and does that medium represent what the person really had to say to a friend or a loved one? Books are written, but books are edited, marketed, and sold. Getting someone's e-mail archives might grant some insight, but I'm pretty sure my hotmail account will disappear into the ether shortly after I die. Will students 150 years from now be able to read General David Petraeus's letters to his wife the way we're able to read General Robert E. Lee's or General George Washington's? (Just names I pulled out of a hat).

Anyway.

I'm doing great, how are you?

Hey, there...been a long time, and I hope that all is well. I don't know about humanity not changing in terms of technology, but I sometimes think about humanity's lack of growth and development in terms of our basest desires, wants, needs, inclinations in general. This is why history repeats itself. I think you may mean we develop new inventions, we add more buildings, increase our population, etc, but essentially we are doing the same things now that we were 1000s of years ago. Not to be all gloom and doom, but I believe that it's time we wake up to a new stage of enlightenment or intelligence or whatever you want to call it or else we will just be on the same path as a people with no true growth.

I'm sure one can save the Twitter updates for an indefinite amount of time. I think what I meant was that twitter, blogs, et al. are all not as intimate as a letter or a diary, since (as I understand it), tweets and blog posts are generally designed for an audience greater than one. I personally don't think it has the insight into one's thought processes that a letter does. Then again, I'm in no way a serious scholar on the subject, so I could be way off.

Hey...nice to see a response from you...although I hardly remember I have this account. I'm doing well. We've had a pretty rough couple of years, but it's taught me quite a few lessons I needed to learn. How have you been?

Hey, hey you, update please.