The Multi-Tool

So, I found myself staring at the keyboard, like I find myself doing a lot, and a somewhat skewed thought moonwalked across my imagination: The keyboard has become a multi-tool.

For those of us that are old enough to think back before the mid-to-late eighties, there was a time when a keyboard was, well, a typewriter. Even in the late eighties, those fancy word processors were viable products to have on the shelves. For that matter, I think it was 1989 when I bought my typewriter.

What could you do with a typewriter?

I suppose, much like the mighty pen, you could incite riots, thoughts, sympathy, etc. Of course, to do these things successfully, you had to be in possession of a small portion of talent. Otherwise, kindergarten teachers would have suffered the great glue eating riots of 1973.

At some point in time, we figured out how to hook up a typewriter to an off grey box and make magic happen. Of course, it's probably a good thing our first monitor screens were made of glass. Could you imagine what an LCD screen would look like after you scraped off the white-out?

So, what can you do with this not-so-new multi-tool?

I can have an ongoing conversation with someone on the other side of our planet and I don't even have to open my mouth (except for the occasional Cheeto).

I can pay my bills.

Heck, you can pay my bills!

I can find information on almost any topic, and some of it could actually be true.

I can tell a machine how to perform a function in seconds that would typically take me minutes to do.

And I can still incite riots, thoughts, or sympathy. Though my love of glue has long since faded.

Wow! We have come a long way. Or have we?

If I cut this little black cord, I don't even have a typewriter.