Ignorance

 

On Monday morning I was sitting here at this desk in our study when, on the other side of the road, something caught my eye. It was a telephone engineer at the top of a telegraph pole. He was making some kind of intervention concerning the various wires that meet there.

One of them comes to our house and I assume that without that wire, I would not be able to send out blogposts to the world at large. Blogposts that have no doubt  created puzzlement and angry debate in internet spy centres run by government agencies in both Russia and China. But to be honest I have precisely no idea how this process works for I am no technophile.

There are lots of things I do not understand. After all, we cannot know everything so I just cruise along  untroubled by my ignorance. Although I have snapped thousands of digital images with digital cameras, I have no idea what a digital image is or how that business works. All I know is that digital images are infinitely superior to the old prints we waited for after completing rolls of film. And if you know how digital photography works, please don't tell me because I know that I would just glaze over and forget it all before the breaking of a new day.

How televisions work is another long tolerated area of ignorance for me. I prefer to think of that process as pure magic for the technical explanation would baffle the hell out of me.

At the end of my Valentine's Day post, I referred to electronic car keys. If you drive a motor vehicle, you have also most likely got an electronic car key. I can lock Clint with my key from fifty yards away  and at night when locking our front door I often press "Lock" on Clint's key just to make doubly  sure he's secure. The indicator lights flash orange through the front  door's glazed panels to tell me that my press has been successful.

Again, I have absolutely do idea how electronic car keys work and so I often smile or shake my head in amazement. Who ever invented these keys deserves to become the king (or queen!) of a small but prosperous  mountain kingdom. I just typed into Google, "Who invented electronic car keys?" and the answer came back - Paul Lipschutz who worked for an automotive supply company called Niemans in the 1980's. His applications for various US patents were granted in that same decade. They all related to car security. I doubt that there is a statue of  Paul Lipschutz anywhere in the world but maybe there should be one.

And how do microwaves work, TV remotes, bar codes, refrigerators, satellites?  My ignorance of these things  is quite comprehensive.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/UNJwe1W