Excerpt from "Inca Road" by Karin Muller

"...In this world people went to see each other if they had something
to say. They cooked and ate around a fire, sat together in the
evenings to spin or weave or to simply chat and chew some coca leaves.
It made me wonder if all of our comfort devices - air conditioners,
e-mail, television and even telephones - had slipped into our lives
like thieves, robbing us of some of our humanity."

This passage speaks to me something quite profound. Mind you, I could
just as easily write these thoughts out on paper so that they could be
concealed and confined to limited sets of eyes, however as I thumb
these letters across the self-correcting screen on my iPhone, I type
away all effort to conceal and any thoughts of confinement. Will these
words circulate around a network that has come to artificially
resemble the community of people that Muller refers to? I believe that
it won't. The two, no matter how integrated into our lives our
technology becomes it will not adequately replace direct interaction.
I don't think that the limited recognition of this is destined to
change the course of our culture, it is more likely that we will
continue to pursue this end with ever increasing diligence.
My idealistic and hopeful mind believes that we have an immense
opportunity to change this course or at least preserve the
understanding that simplicity has great benefits and the direct
support from a community is a vitality for the species of mankind.
How we come to merge the two different ways of living will not come
from a manual. It will not be found in some obscure textbook. The
answers lie right before each and every one of us. It is our
individual duty and responsibility to make these changes. Some people
will facilitate others to see how they can contribute or at least
create an arousal of doubt that will instill a desire for that
individual to learn for themselves. I know a facilitator like this and
he has already done great work. I have learned that we can take the
access to unfiltered, yet priceless information and use this to learn
and guide ourselves and others. I believe that while each and every
interpretation of a believe or idea is completely and wholly original,
no idea can be completely original in that there is some influence
from others. In that case, the work and works of others need to be
learned from and shared in efficient and useful ways across
non-existent barriers such as language or distance. Technology appears
that it can come very close to serving this purpose and we grow
continually closer all the time.