When Man Rises Above the Apes

As an old friend of mine used to say, “once more, man rises above the apes”. I have adopted the phrase and, unbeknownst to its originator, made it my own. I use it liberally, to tease my friends or family when they eventually overcome simple technical obstacles, but, more often, to congratulate myself for having understood (if not mastered!) something that most children would consider foetus’ play!

Keeping up with the incessant flow of technological innovation is a daunting task and I am getting left behind. One of the reasons is that I’m not really interested in new-fangled gadgetry. Another is that, with the occasional exception, I have little energy to even bother trying. Despite this general apathy in all things technical, my life is not unduly affected in anyway, and I find myself functioning adequately well both at work and in my free time. But the sensation remains that I am not “with it”. When people make a fuss about their i-phones and their App Downloads (not sure if that is the right name – I read it a couple of hours ago and might have mis-remembered it), I don’t get excited.

Having said all this, on a few rare occasions, I do attempt to master some of the simpler, least arcane triumphs of the technological revolution. The process is akin to flat pack furniture: one starts with vague excitement, continues through blistered hands, sweating, swearing, head-scratching, wishing one had never bothered starting, wrong pieces in wrong holes, beers opened and drunk, tools and screws all over the place and, finally, an imperfect assemblage that functions adequately but which is flawed in some way!

My most recent triumph in the struggle to stay one step ahead of our simian cousins was a source of great personal gratification! I ordered, via the Internet, a stereo lead with double 3.5mm male jacks… This is undoubtedly not an essential component of most operations at Cape Canaveral, but I was pleased with the look of it, and the fact that my technical terminology had been understood by someone somewhere!

The next step was to download a little free software designed to record music emanating from my stereo! Sounds would, apparently travel down the highly macho double-pronged lead, enjoying a ménage á trois with my stereo and my computer. I would press a button here and a button there and, lo and behold, my old cassettes would be stored in digital format – brilliant! It was really simple, looking back at it now, but at the time it was a great step for one man in his own personal quest to stay one rung above his hairy ancestors!

The doubt remains, however… maybe monkeys know something we don’t!