Wow, this title sounds like I'm writing some kind of self help book.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig writes about how in present day, people (or more fittingly, consumers) purchase and utilize things, both technological and not, thinking only about their function. They don't bother to go in depth to learn hot those things work, how to properly use them, or really thinking about their "essence" at all. But is it really all their fault?
Maybe, the essence of modern mass produced technology is not recognized or appreciated because -
it doesn't have any.
Technology is made to save time. People buy it to save time. Really, we are only using it because we think it will help us reach a future goal faster. We are rushing through time, a concept created by humans as much as any other technological invention is. As much as we appreciate technology on the surface, we appreciate time just as much - on the surface. Time is thrown around as if it is separate from the Quality we wish to be experiencing in life. We seek Quality as the result of function, but, as Pirsig says, Quality is the underlying base that anything worthwhile is built on. Quality comes before function, so how can function give quality? In a piece of technology with no essence, no Quality base, it becomes just another consumer-product steppingstone to the never ending search for quality in life.
