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Why we don't understand:
I am a child of the cold war era, one who remembers communism, bomb shelters, Soviet aggressions in Eastern Europe, and the various curtains. The "bamboo curtain" in Southeast Asia, and the "iron curtain" in Europe, these were linguistic symbols of communist aggression throughout the world, and the good news is, that we won! Well mostly. People my age are facing another wall, not from communism, but technology. I thought I would be dramatic and call it the "Tech Curtain"
If you are an old guy like me, there is a lot that you don't understand out here in cyberspace, even here in the blogosphere, where things are a little easier, and all you have to do is pick a template, pick a topic, and peck away on your keyboard therapeutically until you have spoken your piece and appeased your frustrations on the subject at hand.
Now, this lack of understanding doesn't come from a lack of intelligence. There are a lot of highly intelligent, well educated, (the two are not always found together) people in the world who are confused and bewildered when it comes to the influx of new stuff on the tech market.
Is it a conspiracy?
Well, there have been notable times in history, when some men have withheld knowledge from others in order to get an upper hand. There are obvious instances, where it is legal and proper, such as trademarked recipes, and safety issues like the manufacturing process for nerve gas, but that is, at least, a little different from what we are talking about here.
The ancient Egyptians who were sharp enough to notice the changes in seasons and the attending changes in the floodwater levels of the Nile valley, were able to use this secret knowledge to propel themselves into leadership roles by keeping it secret. There have been many such cases, and they still happen today. No I don't think this is a case of the Technocrats of the world withholding knowledge to gain world domination at the expense of the poor bewildered peasantry, it is simply that most people my age just haven't really made an effort to keep up with the ever expanding technology. Science and technology have moved so rapidly, and we half expected or wished that it would turn around, but it hasn't and now we have to catch up or be left behind. It is not however, as bad as it may seem. Most of it has to do with Jargon.
Jargon.
If we don't understand html, it is in all likelihood because we don't know what it stands for. When someone in science or computers says something we don't understand it is confusing, because it sounds as though they are speaking another language. The truth? They are. They are speaking the language of jargon. We all use it, especially in the workplace, and much of it has made it's way into everyday language. It is a means of communicating using words to avoid describing the process or tools we use. It is much easier to say to someone: "Hand me that trowel". Than to say "would you hand me that thin, flat, rectangular piece of metal with a handle on the top that we use to smooth down this mixture of sand, gravel, and cement we use to build this flat area to put a house on." That's what jargon is, and that's what's eating our tech lunch. I will try to give definitions as we go along.
I am just learning most of this for myself, so why don't we learn together?
