Sir, - Recent references to the danger of Children getting "Nintendo thumb" or other injuries from playing computer games and the warning that years of agony from bad posture and repetitive strain injuries could result from excessive Internet surfing set me musing on computerised devices in general.
It seems to be that we are increasingly vulnerable to a modern malaise that might be termed "high-techitis", a veritable viral infection of the human psyche from the invasion of a technological bug. Far be it from me to downgrade the sometimes awe-inspiring face of scientific development or belittle the blessings that have accrued to us from it. One feels, however, that, while the computer itself can be a virus victim, the user, too, can be unwittingly brainwashed, robotised and inwardly diminished in certain sensitivities that mark us off as human beings.
In this context, I recall the words of the Swiss writer Max Frisch: "Technology. . .the knack of so arranging the world that we need not experience it. (Technik. . .Kniff, die Welt so einzurichten, dass wir sie nicht erleben mussen.)" Machine-motivated humans can never monitor, computerwise, the subtle motions of the heart that are sacrosanct, in tune with, so to speak, the firsthand reality of living out life's drama to the full in encounters of a different kind - e.g., in a self-fulfilling development of one's inner vision, in the appreciation of life's mystery and, indeed, of the beauty born often of its pain. -Yours, etc., Fr Pat Deighan
Laytown, Co Meath.