The future is now

Having noted that at least two family members are using Skype to keep in touch, I decided that it was worthwhile for me to get a webcam and sign up for the service. It blows my mind that there's no cost for me to use my computer to communicate face to face (so to speak) with someone else. This is serious futuristic stuff.

I've probably asked it before, but do we realize and appreciate how amazing a time we're living in from a technological perspective? The ability at our fingertips to access information and communicate with anyone is virtually unlimited and relatively inexpensive.

To be sure, the ease of finding what we want when we want and being able to contact people regardless of where they are opens up issues that we haven't entirely figured out. Obviously there are drawbacks. Yet I can't help but think that for the most part this is a good thing.

Testing Skype with my mom drove home how far things have come from what I knew for my first twentysome years. From today's perspective, those were practically technological dark ages. Even ten years ago looks limited compared to now. How enormously will our lives change through technology in the next ten?