Editorial - Techno-relationships

Regular readers of either this or my FusionAce "Life" blog will realize that I'm not big on editorials - in fact I've probably written only one so far... the rest have been mostly drivel about every-day life. But tonight - I'm inspired (thanks, biker).

Is technology ruining our sense of interpersonal relationships? Funny this would come up today because I was just reading the latest issue of Legion of Super-Heroes. Old-school fans will recall that the Legionaires inhabit the distant future version of the DC-Universe - several millenia removed from the world of Superman and the Justice League. The premise? What if you lived in a boring world where "patterned behaviour" was the choice lifestyle? What if the most popular choice was to just sit at home and browse the Net instead of actually going out to see people? What if you could do something about it? What if you and your buddies had unusual "powers..." As the tag-line for book reads: "We're so sick of it, we could scream."

In fact this very issue (#4 for those keeping track) starts off with Sun Boy and some fellow Legionaires visiting his folks...
Dad: "Tell them how we met, Dear."
Mom: "In person."

But is all hope for humanity lost? I doubt it. I lean towards to the tech-optomist perspective. Always figured that if we couldn't do it ourselves, technology would help us do it. (But not necessarily do it for us - that's a different story altogether - go see the trailer for Stealth now).

Geeks of a feather:
In the span of 24 hours I met up with a bunch of guys I rarely talk to... true, they mostly came over to my office to get a look at the PSP. But look at it the other way: it's making connections. One of these days I'll be carrying it around in public and some total stranger will hit my wi-fi connection for an impromptu game.

Babou was telling me about a weird World of Warcraft encounter he had last night. A fellow player positioned his character in front of his last night while Babou was in the middle of something (reading a manual, I think he said). The stranger broke out in a fit of virtual laughter. Unsure what to make of the jolly creature in front of him, Babou opened a chat window with the stranger and joked: "Do I know you? Maybe I'd recognize you better naked." 'Lo and behold, the other player used some kind of preset macro to strip all the clothing off his character...

They decided to sit their characters down at the local bar and start chatting together. While this was going on, another character - this time a female version of the same creature walked over and danced for them a little. Babou made his character applaud.

All this made him realize something: even without the actual gameplay of going out into the virtual wilderness to slay virtual beasts and whatnot, the game had become its own entity. It was a platform on which he was just having a good time communicating with folks just like him around the world. Sometimes the best part of that was just knowing that there are indeed real people just like you out there.

Call me wishy-washy. But geeking out brought Starfish, Babou (his wife included), and myself closer together...