Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We have computing power a thousand magnitudes greater than what took us to the moon and back. And we use it to play checkers.

Sitting here in the coffee shop writing these blog posts, I look across the room and note someone playing checkers on their new Windows 11 computer. Also on their screen are a dozen open apps meant to do something “more worthwhile.”

The person’s computer is a thousand orders of magnitude greater than the computers that took us to the moon and back. The same is true for my computer that I am using as a typewriter.

What are we doing? We have all this computational power and yet we play checkers and type words. Surely there is something better we can do with this. Perhaps playing checkers is a worthwhile endeavor as it uses the mind and untangles the gazillion combinations that a game of checkers brings. Perhaps typing words explaining how typing words is a worthwhile endeavor as it communicates to the world how worthwhile are worthwhile endeavors.

Alas, we are an odd lot. Still, we seem to do some good things for others. That is a worthwhile endeavor.