The Next Best Thing…

I found myself trapped between the present and the past this afternoon. Trapped in the present as I presented a webinar on “Living Fearlessly” to a cohort of automotive repair shop owners. And, trapped in the past as I reflected on the technology and where I was first exposed to it.

The title, “Living Fearlessly,” is a misnomer. No one lives fearlessly. At least, no one I know. We are the potential prisoners of our terrors. As a result, my presentation was more about transcending those fears. Rising above them. Then it was about living without them.

It focused on the origin of those fears. The physiology and biology, not the psychology associated with those fears. That, and the tools necessary to make that happen.

It was also about the technology responsible for making something like this afternoon’s webinar possible. It’s been said that if “it:” something that finds its way into our everyday lives, was developed after you were born it is technology. And, that if it existed before you were born, it is simply a tool!

Well, for many of us Facetime, video conferencing, webinars, and high-quality video recordings are all technology. Recent technology. But, technology nonetheless.

I first encountered that technology at the 1964 World’s Fair, Flushing Meadows, New York.
It was developed by Bell Laboratories and referred to simply as Mod, Mod 1, or Picture Phone. By today’s standards, it was nothing if not primitive. A fixed location at the Fair equipped with a full-size television camera and phone, connected to a second location in Disney’s Tomorrowland. Still, it filled everyone there with wonder.

It was the precursor of the “tools” everyone who was born after 1964 takes for granted. Something I’ll be thinking and talking more in the future.