Re: [at-l] Computers on the Trail, yea or nay?

["Thomas McGinnis" <tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us>]

>>> "Jack Tarlin" <baltjack@hotmail.com> 03/08/00 07:13PM >>>
    1)Do you feel comfortable with hikers who are packing computers?
### No. They don't "make sense," and thusly put me on guard as to what else is going to come out of their packs or their mouths that I will need to reconcile to my own {totally complete and correct} logic for living. Things need to make sense. Everything. Awg!!

    2)Do you feel computers and other hi-tech links to the outside world are 
intrusive, harmful to ones' "wilderness" experience, and are out-of-place on 
the A.T.?
### 100% yes.

    3)Do you feel that if used discreetly and privately that it's OK to 
carry and use a computer?
## A little self-delusion goes a long way. If I don't know about it, don't see it in use, hear it in operation, 'nur nothing else, it can't affect me. [What I don't see doesn't really exist.] Too, I have a bit of a problem with the logical inconsistency of not being bothered by someone scribbling away in a pen&ink paper journal but being bothered by someone typing quietly away on a silent keypad. Discreteness goes a long way, too. Out of sight or out of site, out of mind.

    4)How do feel the majority of the A.T. community feels about this?
The implications that fall out of answer 3) (being "what I don't see can't hurt me") are probably pretty common, along with the simple respect accorded to the privacy of others.

    5)Do you not really care one way or the other?
No, I care. (Truly. I don't want the techo-rain on my delusional parade that I am "carefree" except for the grounding tasks of food, water, and shelter. Techno-exposure, via portableFM, cellphone, 'tutor, today's newspaper, or a low-flying derigible, obliterates the efforts of driving hundreds of miles, humping x days' food up a ridge, and beating back the rain with my face, to make it to a backcountry site. Ruin the results of that effort at your peril.)

Hmmmm. Except for the "me too" effect, I don't think I've added anything to the already good answers seen earlier..... Sorry.

Sloetoe
(Backcountry.Luddite.Org)


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