The computer has forever altered the world of information access and exchange.  The other day I was watching a program on the Discovery Channel about technological advances which will be widely available within a few months.  A man wearing a telephone headset was talking to his personal computer.  When he spoke into the small microphone curved toward his lips the screen responded immediately to his commands. 

He said the word "Yahoo" and the screen changed to show the “Yahoo” search page.  Any key word or sentence listed there came to the screen on command, without a single touch on the keyboard.  He spoke to the machine in a normal tone of voice in sentences, phrases, or single words.  The next scene showed an oriental man doing the same thing; his machine responded equally accurately to commands in Japanese.

Voice-activated lines already take calls for telephone numbers. Physically handicapped people can control their wheelchairs with vocal commands.  Soon the technology will be more widely available for home use.  The day doesn’t seem far off when a keyboard will only be necessary for occasional changes or corrections in dictated text; one need only speak the message, name the punctuation, make spoken corrections, and say, "Print."   I’ll be able to dictate articles while driving along in the car, play the tapes for my computer, and receive a printed copy a few minutes later.  Remarkable!

From personal computer to VCR to TV, soon we’ll surf the internet for prime time specials, interact with the cast from our couches, and read or send e-mail on the screen during commercials.  Maybe we can make phone calls from the couch, too, directly through the TV set.  Why not? Put down the remote and tell the TV what you want.  "Hello, Mushi Gardens?  Chicken wings, pork-fried rice, and egg drop soup, for home delivery, please."

The whole technological revolution feels quite daunting, actually.  The changes come along so rapidly, they make yesterday’s breakthroughs into today’s white elephants.  This fifty-something mind of mine can scarcely comprehend it.

People need time to assimilate change.  When things happen so quickly, it seems as if they haven’t happened at all.  A friend of mine put it this way:  "Technology is a way of arranging the world so we don’t have to experience it."

Maybe that’s why credit card debt keeps piling up.  When we spend money by sliding a card through a slot or signing a piece of paper, it doesn’t seem like we’ve spent real money, so the balance due at the end of the month hardly seems real either.  I know what I'll do.  Next time I get those bills, I'll just tell the TV to pay them!