The loss of physical touch.

[DesEsseintes]

'There is something about the move from manual to automatic – from laboriously shaping each letter to just hitting a button – that changes things, and that’s not just true of spelling. I increasingly notice the disappearance of small ways in which humans used to engage tangibly and effortfully with their world but now don’t; a growing physical distance between people and stuff. How many people still wind a watch at night; start a car on a freezing day by easing the choke out to just the right point; insert reels of film into a camera, and take photographs of something other than their own face?'

Full article here. Wishy washy and weak towards the end, but I think it raises an important point, and is another factor in our atomized world. It's why I love the meetings that happen between people here on the GB especially, even if for obvious reasons I can never make any of them: it's a small reversal in the directional flow, from analogue to digital, manual to automatic, hand-built to robot built.

What have you done with your hands today? Who have you touched or been touched by? When was the last time you wrote a letter with a pen, or washed and polished your car by hand, or chopped wood, or used a non-digital camera, or anything that didn't involve the intervention of a computer?

I really hope people here are still writing on paper and reading actual books, peeling and chopping and frying and hugging and kissing and all the other activities that remind us we are physical not digital, animal not machine, and that there is more to life than pixels.

The irony inherent in the medium I am using to post this is not lost on me. Nonetheless.

 

[unregistered]

 

[rimmy]

This is one of the reasons I love to cook. It's one of the only times in my day that I get to touch something real. Unless my chicken was made by computer.

 

[DesEsseintes]

This is one of the reasons I love to cook. It's one of the only times in my day that I get to touch something real. Unless my chicken was made by computer.

Does it look anything like this?

If so, be careful not to overcook or you may create a syntax error.

Off to have a thoroughly old-fashioned, utterly inefficient, gloriously sensual bath.

Oh - and to shave, properly, with shaving soap and a brush. Simple pleasures, as Wife of Bath would say.

 

[Erochic]

I just had an old fashioned bath in which I read an old fashioned book

 

[DesEsseintes]

I just had an old fashioned bath in which I read an old fashioned book

Yes! Score one for Team Sensual. As opposed to Team Virtual.

 

[Ishmael]

I think the virtual person is more often is the exception as opposed to the rule. There's probably a lot more human interaction going on than we realize.

But you do have a point re. writing, and most especially with the texting. I do believe that it's debasing the language.

Ishmael

 

[DesEsseintes]

I think the virtual person is more often is the exception as opposed to the rule. There's probably a lot more human interaction going on than we realize.

But you do have a point re. writing, and most especially with the texting. I do believe that it's debasing the language.

Ishmael

Thank you: I hope you are right about real
world living. On writing: when I wrote my novel I wrote it out longhand in plan form, draft form AND final perfect copy, using each redraft as an editing opportunity, before I finally wrote it up on the computer. I know that slower process forcede to think and craft more.

Case in point! Forced me...

 

[GiggLeGasm]

I truly believe that this contributes to the mental decline of the elderly population. One of my favorite things to do, as a nurse, is to bathe an elderly patient. There is something special about having the time to touch and watching how it settles them, especially if he or she is aware enough to talk about the past during the bath. It's the best medicine I can offer.

One of the best (underline best many times) books I've ever read is an oldie-but-goodie:

http://www.amazon.com/Touching-The-Human-Significance-Skin/dp/0060960280

it is here in full text (the formatting can be off-putting but you can get a feel for if it's a good read for you)
https://archive.org/stream/youchingthehuman000780mbp/youchingthehuman000780mbp_djvu.txt

 

[Ishmael]

Thank you: I hope you are right about real
world living. On writing: when I wrote my novel I wrote it out longhand in plan form, draft form AND final perfect copy, using each redraft as an editing opportunity, before I finally wrote it up on the computer. I know that slower process forcede to think and craft more.

Case in point! Forced me...

I work from an outline and will 'print' out some parts by hand. My cursive is virtually unintelligible, even to me. Years of writing code, both by hand and by kbd. have eroded my fine motor writing skills.

As I said though, I do work with pencil and paper for the outline and what I consider to be key sections. I can edit same much faster than jumping (paging) back and forth on the computer.

Ishmael

 

[Wings]

I make dinner every night for my family. It's satisfying and sometimes frustrating. We eat out once a month as a family, I let the kids pick which meal and then give them some options of venue. Other than that I'm chopping, sautéing, peeling, grilling, baking their meals along with their help.

I have thousands of books on my iPad but my bookshelves overflow with tomes.

I do take selfies but I also photograph the world around me.

I exchange handwritten letters with a dotty aunt in the heart of Mississippi but I text my parents on the regular.

My life is nicely balanced, I don't feel like I'm falling short when I take advantage of technology.

 

[Lord Pmann]

I haven't done this in quite a few years, but I used to like to hand build guitar amplifiers. I only did two (and several pedals). But there was no digital signal processing. In fact, not only was it analog, but it wasn't even solid state. I used old school vacuum tubes. I didn't use printed circuit boards, but point to point wiring. There was an art to arranging the chassis and all of that. And burning the shit out of my hand with a soldering iron or red hot tube was just so much fun. Okay, maybe not that part.

I have begun to realize with this post what a fucking nerd I am.

 

[MeekMe]

I do lots with my hands. I cook, I play with my cats, I create art and tend a small potted plant garden.

The art is my favorite. I like staining my fingers with charcoal, graphite and paint. (^-^)

 

[Wings]

I haven't done this in quite a few years, but I used to like to hand build guitar amplifiers. I only did two (and several pedals). But there was no digital signal processing. In fact, not only was it analog, but it wasn't even solid state. I used old school vacuum tubes. I didn't use printed circuit boards, but point to point wiring. There was an art to arranging the chassis and all of that. And burning the shit out of my hand with a soldering iron or red hot tube was just so much fun. Okay, maybe not that part.

I have begun to realize with this post what a fucking nerd I am.

Dude, I make fishing rods by hand. I'm a nerd.

 

[DesEsseintes]

Gigglegasm, as usual, I agree entirely. Single old people, usually women, can go for years without being held or touched, and it diminishes an important part of their humanity. Our skin helps us apprehend the world. I'm on my phone but will look properly later.

Ishmael, that is really interesting: one might have expected that coding would, of all work, be entirely digitised now. It is heartening to know that it is not.

Wings - that does indeed sound like a fine balance. And I'm not trying to be a Luddite. Technology has enhanced our lives in so any ways. It's only when it diminishes it that I worry.

Thank you, everybody, for the thought-provoking points raised so far. Lots to chew over, to use a deliberately sensual metaphor.

 

[Wings]

Maybe it's the balance that's lacking for some people. Technology is great but it doesn't make up for humanity.

 

[DesEsseintes]

I haven't done this in quite a few years, but I used to like to hand build guitar amplifiers. I only did two (and several pedals). But there was no digital signal processing. In fact, not only was it analog, but it wasn't even solid state. I used old school vacuum tubes. I didn't use printed circuit boards, but point to point wiring. There was an art to arranging the chassis and all of that. And burning the shit out of my hand with a soldering iron or red hot tube was just so much fun. Okay, maybe not that part.

I have begun to realize with this post what a fucking nerd I am.

Not in the least: that sounds amazing. I assume you have seen 'It Might Get Loud'? What Jack White does at the beginning of that documentary makes me want his babies. It's on YouTube in full just in case you haven't. Sorry, Jelly: Nickelback weren't invited to take part...

 

[Lord Pmann]

Not in the least: that sounds amazing. I assume you have seen 'It Might Get Loud'? What Jack White does at the beginning of that documentary makes me want his babies. It's on YouTube in full just in case you haven't. Sorry, Jelly: Nickelback weren't invited to take part...

I have seen it, but I don't remember the part to which you refer.

 

[DesEsseintes]

I have seen it, but I don't remember the part to which you refer.

Love that guy so much. Amazing live.

 

[Lord Pmann]

Love that guy so much. Amazing live.

I had completely forgotten about that. Amazingness.

 

[Lord Pmann]

Dude, I make fishing rods by hand. I'm a nerd.

That's amazing. Carbon fiber?

 

[Ishmael]

Ishmael, that is really interesting: one might have expected that coding would, of all work, be entirely digitised now. It is heartening to know that it is not.

I haven't written any code in years. I'll do pseudo code for a few friends (even Manu ) But I have more interesting things going on.

Now it's short stories, verse, and novel outlines. (and assorted letters here and there).

Ishmael

 

[Wings]

That's amazing. Carbon fiber?

Not that high-tech. Mostly there's cork, bamboo, graphite and sometimes aluminum.

 

[Lord Pmann]

Not that high-tech. Mostly there's cork, bamboo, graphite and sometimes aluminum.

That's really neat. Pics?

This is a little project of mine from a few years back. I have no woodworking skills, but I wanted to give it a try and do something productive with my hands, rather than just masturbating. So, I bought a fretless bass. It was unfinished. Really rough. Not sanded or stained or anything. Basically someone assembled the wood for me. I sort of wanted this as a project, as I am NOT a handy person at all. I just don't have that touch. But I decided I would refinish it and sand it down and reshape it all myself. It's certainly no masterpiece, but it was a lot of fun.

http://i1161.photobucket.com/albums/q518/pmann83/WB Sanded_zps0ixahbtm.jpg

http://i1161.photobucket.com/albums/q518/pmann83/WB Fin_zpsiidk5td8.jpg

My favourite part was the fingerboard. As you can see in the first picture, it's not stained and it's sanded extremely rough. I got the shine on it with superglue. It took a lot of time and me gluing my hand to the bass several times. But you put superglue on the fingerboard, rub it evenly, spray accelerator on it to harden, then sand the shit out of it. I did that from about 600 grit all the way up to 3,000. It gives it a hard, nitrocellulose lacquer look, for about $10. Then, I buffed it up to 15,000 grit to get the shine.

 

[unregistered]