Rant #1,671: Another Monster

Yesterday, we spoke about the anniversary of the publishing of one of the most famous novels of all time, one which brought us "The Monster," the creation of Dr. Frankenstein.

The good doctor tried to create the perfect man, and all he got for his troubles was a completely imperfect creature, but one who lives on today in popular culture.

Today, we look upon the creation of another "monster," in a different sense, but one that has touched all of our lives, one way or the other, and for better or for worse.

You see, today, in 1941, somebody by the name of Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 to the world, right smack dab in the middle of the second World War, and he presented this "thing" in Berlin, Germany, right smack dab in the center of one of the countries that precipitated this war by its repugnant actions towards humanity.

This "thing?" The world's first working, programmable, fully automatic computer.

Yes, today is basically the birthday of the thing you are reading this on, and on which I am typing today's Rant.

So, today is the 75th anniversary of this thing that has, by all accounts and purposes, changed our world, and it came by way of Nazi Germany.

Hard to fathom, eh?

And you thought that the Volkswagen, the "people's car," was the only viable legacy of Hitler's regime?

Not so. The computer is, too.

Sure, I doubt that Zuse would believe what that "thing" has become today, through its various permutations over the decades, but it surely has become something of a "monster," more so than any creation of Dr. Frankenstein could ever create in his laboratory.

Sorry, Igor, the computer has become a "monster" of its own kind.

In the modern world, computers are used for everything, used by those high and low, and used by the common people for a variety of uses, including by me to write this column and basically, do my real job as a professional writer.

We chat on our computer, we play games, we learn things, we do just about everything imaginable on the computer, helped on, of course, by the Internet, something Zuse could have never imagined 75 years ago.

But we also do other things on our computers that aren't really too good.

We bully, we call each other names, we recruit for previously unimaginable causes, and we become addicted to using our computer and being online.

So the combination of the computer and the Internet have changed the world, and not necessarily for the better.

Sure, I love the immediacy of everything that we get from our computers and the Internet, but what happened to the "joy" of the search, the joy of what leads up to finding what we want?

We don't converse with people face to face anymore, we do it all on social media. We have a generation that has no idea what it is to speak to each other one on one.

We antagonize people, we make fun of people, and yes, people have been driven to do dastardly acts, on themselves and others, via what they have read on their computer.

Look, you have to blame the people themselves, who are sick to begin with, but that sickness is certainly facilitated by their computer.

So yes, the computer, for all of the good it has brought us, is also something of a "monster," and like the monster in the "Frankenstein" novel, it isn't perfect, and will never be perfect.

But unlike the monster in that novel, we can't just burn it to death.

It isn't going away anytime soon.

We can learn to use it the right way, and make it as perfect as it can possibly be, and that is pretty much all we can do.

So, happy 75th anniversary to the computer.

I wouldn't say that you should give your computer a kiss or a hug today in honor of the anniversary, but just treat it the right way, and that will be celebration enough.