The future isn't all it was cracked up to be

Remember when machines were going to free us all from the drudgery of work and lead us into a utopian life of leisure, novel-writing and blogging? As recently as the 1980s people were predicting that computers would make us so efficient our main problem would be finding ways to fill up all the free time we'd have.

So why is it I don't even have time to draw breath this week, let alone write a blog post (well, apart from this one of course)? In my business there was a time when you could tell the boss/client he couldn't make that last minute change because there wasn't time to get the typesetting back or have the artwork redone or find a different photo — now no one ever says "no" because the deadline extends almost to the minute before the job gets printed. Those old limitations were physical, human limitations, but now it's all possible with a few keystrokes our poor human selves are working longer and longer hours in an effort to keep up with the 24/7 flow of work that computers and the internet have made possible. All that computer-enabled "free" time has just been filled up with more work, I'm super efficient these days but I'm also completely knackered most of the time.

All of which is my way of saying I'm having a really bad week.

Download: Crushed By The Wheels of Industry (12" version) - Heaven 17 (mp3)