Too Much Magic

The name of this post is shamelessly borrowed from James Howard Kunstler, whose forthcoming book of the same name is due out in July. His publications span the past twenty years, including non-fiction and fiction, covering the issues of peak oil, suburbia and his imagined future in Upstate New York, without the civilized comforts we take for granted today.

There is no better illustration of "too much magic" than the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

This 200 year-old Goethe poem was popularized by Disney's Fantasia in 1940, and revitalized in 2010 with the Nicolas Cage feature. 

The moral of the story is clear: employing supernatural (super-technical) forces, which we do not fully understand, to reduce manual labor is a recipe for disaster. 

Yet here we are: up to our necks in wireless meters and a sea of electrosmog, with no end in sight. 

In reality, there will be no sorcerer to save the day with a counteracting magic spell.

It's up to each of us to decide what is appropriate use of technology, and what is best done the old fashioned way.