Our world is obsessed with progress, and its easy to see why. I love progress too, its exciting and promises a better life. I'd love that new tablet that cool looking tablet that's coming out in three years, my current one is now inadequate by the very expectation of the shiny new one. I seem to forget that one day I will end my love affair with that new tablet, as I have done with my current one. But it's okay, technology doesn't hate me for it, and the industry rubs its hands in delight. When I look back at my intense excitement for a laptop with a full 64MB of RAM, I am reminded by the futility of this circle of desire. But unless it stops you ever being content as it can do, it's actually one of the better aspects of capitalist consumerism. Nothing else can drive progress to such a degree. With that obvious exception of the vicious circle of discontent, progress is still great. We are born into a world with a certain level of technology: this is our baseline minimum. The newborn don't appreciate the progress of history, only what they can perceive from their baseline. If progress stopped, we would become restless and bored by the lack of it.
Occasionally though we can break the cycle. Because there is only desire for the latest and the greatest, yesterdays technology can be produced very cheaply. For example the
Raspberry Pi, with only a 700MHz processor and 256MB of ram, its quite pitiful compared even to my humble desktop. However, at only £16 (or £22 for a slightly better one) it is a bargain for something that would have been considered a supercomputer compared to my first laptop. So paradoxically, the way to be rewarded by consumerism, is to defy it.
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