Watson

“Surely, when he was home, he worked on his invention saying, in his first call, 'Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you.'”

Many intermediaries.

“Sherlock Holmes worked on his cases with Dr. Watson and wanted him to see some hair.”

The game of “Telephone” is based on the idea – no, the reality – that when people pass on to others what they have heard, the message gets altered. Sometimes beyond the point of recognizability. Gossip and rumors are natural outgrowths of this problem. The current reality is that often the sound on telephones is so poorⁱ that the messages are not understood.

That's the good news. The proliferation of notepads, portable telephones, and Skype, along with the social media, has made it possible to spread misinformation to the entire world, not just to a group of giggling children. False information can circle the globe rapidly, and correcting it is not as easy as spreading it.

The telephone's history prior to he internet is fascinating. Not only were there real varieties, like two cans and some string, but also the imagined – at least at the time – like Dick Tracy's Two Way Wrist Radio.ⁱⁱ However, although there were experimental models for the transmission of sound, the first practical model of what we now call the “telephone”ⁱⁱⁱ was developed by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. He is famous for summoning his assistant on it^iv as the first example of its actual use.

But, as I have noted, much has happened since then, and we now live in an age when almost everyone in the country, including children, carries a telephone around. I'm not sure if having the device immediately available gives them a sense of security, but I am sure that it deprives them all of privacy. Not that people want that anymore. With social media of various sorts there is an urge to inflict their private lives on everyone else and, for reasons that are completely beyond me, everyone else looks.^v

Even more frightening is the tableau that meets our eyes as we walk down the street. No one's eyes meet ours because they are all focused on the contents of their hands: electronic devices, apps, and texts. Some even use the instruments as telephones, although that has receded into being a secondary function.^vi But, by whatever means, it seems to be necessary always to be in contact with someone else. Earbuds and isolation are the order of the day. Telephone calls and texting may be significant contributors to motor vehicle accidents and deaths, but that information is not likely to have any effect on those responsible. After all, they only happen to someone else.

I know almost nothing about economics, so I probably shouldn't be commenting on this subject. But that certainly won't stop me. To use my personal lack of knowledge as a criterion would be subjectivity, and I'm nothing if not objective. (I'll leave time at this point for your individual musings.)

You can't go anywhere nowadays without seeing people on the telephone. Nor can you escape the advertisements for various telephone and texting plans or the ubiquitous apps that you must have in order to keep up with modern society. Add to that the cost of satellite, cable, or other television and internet service and the average family is probably paying for several communications packages – enriching the providers and draining personal savings.

One might argue that such a drain is bad for the economy in addition to being an unnecessary luxury, but another approach is that this creates jobs and keeps the money moving. As I said, I'm not an economist and not the one to answer those questions. But I do suspect that, for the economic better or worse, expenditures which may extend into the thousands every year are causing people to feel poor and resent the ones who are receiving the money. Well, not all those receiving the money – not the installers, linemen, office workers, and the like – but certainly the executives of communication firms.

As for privacy, forget it. In addition to the senseless material that so many post nowadays, there's also some significant data available to those tapping our lines and to hackers around the world.^vii The only privacy that exists is the experience of blotting out the rest off the world^viii when the earbuds are inserted.

Am I a troglodyte? Do I yearn for a return to the past? Perhaps in some ways. But I'm not a Luddite. I haven't destroyed an electronic device all week, although I may, in the future, find it necessary to put some of them out of their misery if I am to maintain my own sanity.^ix Most of all I long for the days when people only talked when they had something significant to say, and when you could occasionally believe what you were told – if you cared.

Alexander Graham Bell moved society forward with his work. Or was it back?

Next episode: “As Luck Would Have It” – Growing old and golden.

I       However helpful the apps.

ii       Which first appeared in 1946.

iii      Definition of the term from the Online Etymological Dictionary: 1835, "system for conveying words over distance by musical notes" (devised in 1828 by French composer Jean-François Sudré (1787-1862); each tone played over several octaves represented a letter of the alphabet), from French téléphone (c.1830), from télé- "far" .... Sudré's system never proved practical. Also used of other apparatus early 19c., including "instrument similar to a foghorn for signaling from ship to ship" (1844). The electrical communication tool was first described in modern form by Philip Reis (1861); developed by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), and so called by him from 1876.

iv      Alexander Graham Bell: notebook entry of March 10, 1876, describing his first success with the telephone. He spoke through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room. "I then shouted into M [the mouthpiece] the following sentence: 'Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you.' To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said." We are asked to assume that he heard through the instrument, not simply because someone in the next room was shouting. OK. Sounds plausible. I'll buy it.

v        Heaven help us if there is a problem with the internet; if, as a result, we're not all connected. How will we know all that's going on. Not that most of it matters.

vi       Of course if you call a commercial firm you're not likely to get anyone. Only voice activation and simulated speech. It's hard to get a live person anymore. But remember, “Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line. It will be answered in the order received.”

vii      I won't discuss the relationship of hacking and cyber war for the moment, but it's becoming a major battlefield.

viii     And any contemplation or thought in general.

ix       I suspect questions of the sanity of others have crossed your mind as they have mine when seeing someone walking alone but talking. It might be that he's on the telephone or he may be bonkers.

Hermitage

I used to think that people walking alone and talking were touched. So did you – admit it. Now we reserve judgment. They may be on the telephone. They may be “reaching out and touching someone” else.

That's the jargon, but the reality is that most people can no longer stand silence, nor to be alone. And at the same time they often insist on being alone. Many of those who have buds in their ears as they walk along with their eyes down are listening to something or other, but not to someone on the other end of the telephone line. It's a “play list,” or some other form of entertainment. For lots of people, the main enemy seems to be actual communication, and they protect themselves from it by whatever means are necessary. With the buds in their ears they warn everyone else to stay away. And the buds provide license to the wearer to ignore everyone around, using the pretense that no one is heard.

I'm more like the members of this latter group. Like Greta Garbo, “I want to be let alone.”ⁱ I prefer silence to people. I'm a hermit. I'm willing to concede that. I prefer isolation.  I'm not enochlophobic – I just don't like people.  So unlike Garbo, I want to be alone as well. Perhaps I should get earbuds connected to wires that are loose in my pocket. No one will suspect a thing. 

But I want to be alone on my terms. And, for better or worse, there's a world out there that I want to be available when I want it to be available.

I raise the issue because, a few days ago, I was cut of from the world. It happened in Massachusetts, in the southern Berkshire mountains, where my wife and I have a vacation home. It's my Hermitage. Andrew Jackson had his (as did Catherine the Great, for that matter) , and this one is mine.ⁱⁱ

I happened to be there alone one dayⁱⁱⁱ when the electricity went off. No big deal. It's happened before. The house is in the woods, and the town is small, but there are available electric company employees in the area and repairs are usually reasonably prompt. I decided to take a nap and reevaluate the situation when I woke up. I suspected that the electricity would be back by that time, and I was right. But when I picked up the telephone,^iv there was no dial tone.

That's a little more unusual. In all likelihood the problem had existed for a while, but, since I rarely use the telephone, I hadn't noticed. My primary use of the land line is to get DSL for my laptop. It had been spotty earlier, but that's frequent when you're out in the country, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Now, though, it was only working sporadically and unpredictably.

So I pulled out the cellular telephone that I occasionally carry in case of emergency. I rarely use it – perhaps once or twice a year – but I have it as insurance. Except the message I got was “No Service.” I think I had overpaid for the “insurance.” The only chance I had to communicate with the outside world was to leave a note on one of the message carriers and hope that it got transmitted in one of the occasional burps of internet service. And fortunately it did, at some time or other after that. The message was addressed to my wife and it asked her to contact someone I know who lives near me^v so that he could have the telephone company check.

I'm not really sure when the message went out, but, as I said, apparently it did, for a couple of hours later there was a knock at the door and I was greeted by my friend's cousin,^vi who came to inform me that my wife had called in a panic, and he wanted to get me to a phone to call her back. (She'd been trying to reach me but all she got was a busy signal, despite the fact that I wasn't using the telephone).

So I did, and after I reassured her about my health, I learned that she had already called the telephone company and they'd come by on the following day. They kept their word and fixed the short on one of their poles about a mile away, and by the following afternoon the world and I were one again.

But I had been unreachable. And just as I, until then, had had the expectation that I could contact others, she expected to be able to speak with me whenever she felt like it. That's the problem. Our ancestors could live in solitude without any concern because they never experienced anything else. On the other hand we, having always been “connected,” become anxious when that capability disappears. It's one of the curses of our modern technological society. The numerous devices we have around have created their own set of expectations and we get nervous when they can't be met. The telephone system^vii at our primary residence is dependent on a backup battery which lasts for about eight hours. It should be plenty of time in a modern city for the return of power. Except that isn't always the case, and once, when electricity was off for several days, we were without power, and without the ability to reach the rest of humanity. As I mentioned, that sort of thing is quite acceptable to me, but most people can't live with it. It's hard for them to tolerate life in a hermitage unconnected to everyone else.

And not everyone can abide a primitive life in general. Abe Lincoln read by candle light. That requires two things: a book and a candle. When the electricity is out and the batteries have already been discharged, there's neither candle nor Kindle. We've become so dependent on technology that its absence is threatening. Our expectations have been raised to such a high level that a fall from it is paralyzing.

So what's the solution? Actually there are three things that can be done. The first, of course, is to prepare for any possible contingencies. For example, get some candles. And get some real books. You should also keep some foods and drinks that won't spoil in the absence of refrigeration.

Next, lower your own expectations and those of the others in your life. When you're hiding away somewhere, let everyone know that you won't be reachable and they shouldn't even try. That won't stop you from contacting them if both the capability and the will exist,^viii but that's your choice. They won't be anticipating it or waiting for it.

And the third thing you can do is somehow or other turn everyone you know into hermits too.

Next episode: “The New Paradigm” – You can decide if it's really better.

i         In “Grand Hotel” (1935) she said “I want to be alone,” but she denied that this was her personal philosophy. Quite correctly she drew a distinction between being alone, and being let alone. The latter was her desire. In terms of quiet, most of her career was in silent films.

ii       Thomas Jefferson occasionally referred to Monticello as “Hermitage.” It seems he not only favored a “wall of separation” between Church and State, but a personal wall between himself and the outside world. I can relate.

iii      My wife was in New York at the time. Sometimes I go to Massachusetts to “veg” and to glory in my solitude, and she comes up for the weekends.

iv       I can't remember why I picked it up. I really don't like talking to people.

v        Actually he lives about a half-hour away, but since he takes care of my house when I'm away he seemed like the logical person to contact.

vi       My friend had fallen asleep. Fortunately he and his cousin live in the same house.

vii      FIOS.

viii     And don't forget to tell them that you had to travel many miles to be able to call them. That will impress them with the idea that you care a lot, and it will give them a sense of guilt for your having to do so just to speak with them. (That may not be true, but it will probably discourage them from calling back.)