Caught in the Current: Searching for Simplicity in the Technological Age

To escape the shackles of cell phones, watches, computers and other such technological ubiquities, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bookman flees to where the""simplicity of the river is so reassuring."" In an annual pilgrimage, he and a group friends head to Oregon's Deschutes River to raft, fish and breathe fresh air. Bookman describes yearning for a simpler journey--a more basic, albeit riskier, search for balance amid modern life's frenetic pace and its invisible, irrevocable bonds to technologies of growth and consumption.""Because we were originally molded by a world of scarcity,"" he writes,""we aren't genetically prepared for a world of plenty."" However, as Bookman and friends master--or almost master--icy rapids, endure scorching desert days and generally josh around, their need for modern life's refreshment becomes evident. The author muses lucidly on the fate of community in the face of the Web, cell networks and television satellites. Some of Bookman's examples of machines' unrelenting grasp are downright scary, such as the ongoing experiments in living a""cyborg"" life, in which""electrodes attached directly into people's skulls allow them to operate a computer through mind control."" Ultimately, Bookman, like others before him, contends that this artificial intelligence spells a spiraling doom.""The modern predicament reminds me of those Chinese finger traps, the paper toys that grip you tighter the more you struggle to escape,"" he writes.""The harder we fight for a sense of personal security and identity, insinuating new technologies into every aspect of our lives,...the less secure we actually feel.""