No More Blank Envelopes When Computers Take Over
Wait til computers really take over! No more blank envelopes! No way, nohow. Never mind the standard sci-fic trope about computers controlling everything; real life is at once more imaginative and less exciting (so far!). On the other hand, for those thrown out of work by computer automation, it’s probably just about as sinister, if they really thought about it.
Technology displacing workers and whole sectors of the economy is nothing new, of course, and blank envelopes are often made overseas these days anyway – and even then, it will be machines that do the making. Whereas making paper was once a craft in its own right, it’s all done automatically by machines now. But even these overseas workers will soon find themselves replaced in turn as technological change renders them obselete as well.
Why write a letter and stick it in an envelope when e-mail and the like can transmit your message so much faster? No printing required, no postage to deal with, no trip to the corner mailbox, and absolutely no waiting whatsoever for an answer! Well, not unless one’s corresponding with a sloth in Australia!
The need for blank envelopes is at an all-time low these days. It’s now hard to find them, even, and one must resort to dedicated stationary stores oftentimes. All thanks to the computer revolution that’s upended whole industries worldwide. It’s nothing like the first envelopes known to history, which would appear to us today to be more like pottery than anything else, made as they were from clay that were dried or even baked in order to be “sealed” – not to mention a right ol’ cracking in order to be opened!
Changing technology has always changed our lives as a species. But it isn’t often as visceral and immediate as those found in fiction. Therefore, instead of space travel, the year 2001 (as opposed to the eponymous movie by famed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick) offers us the worldwide web; instead of moon bases, we USAF Predator and Reaper drones; instead of artificial intelligence, we get cell phones.
Ergo, no more blank envelopes. You can bet the family jewels that that will be the most dramatic impact of our advancing technology. People won’t know what an envelope is in just another three or four generations!