Alexa, where is my electricity and heating?
Ok, maybe we're not quite there yet, but last week's Amazon outage raised a fair question. Have we become too tech dependent?
"We are reliant on technology, and we'll continue to be more reliant over time" said tech guru and futurist Peter Shankman. "When technology helps us, and becomes almost humanized, we don't mind so much. It's a wake-up call when we have these kinds of crashes, but they don't last forever and the technology is going to be fixed."
At the end of the day, this is all part of the high-tech world that we now live in. "If only 10 people are using something and it goes down, no one cares" Shankman told KTRH, "If half the world is using something and it goes down, we have problem."
The good news is, the technology is improving, especially after each mistake. Shankman believes that ultimately, our cell phones will do even more and provide back-up. The bigger problem?
"My biggest concern really is a massive energy grid blackout" Shankman said, "In terms of data, in terms of information, if we're backing up properly as we should be, if our phones, data, and contacts are all backing up, that going down or crashing, it'll be there when the power comes back on. The same way that if you live in an area prone to blackouts, you have a generator, and that generator automatically kicks in the second there's a blackout, and you don't even know the difference."
In the meantime, when the router goes down at home, get used to the screaming from all the other rooms. We really are tech dependent.