By Tom Hayes
“I do understand the importance of the computer,” Mr. McCain reassured in The San Francisco Chronicle last week. “I understand the importance of the blogs.” He said, “I am forcing myself — let me put it this way, I am using the computer more and more every day.” But keeping up with technology “doesn’t mean that I have to e-mail people,” he said. “Now, I read e-mails.” The staff is “constantly showing them to me as the news breaks during the day.”
Does that make any of you uncomfortable?
A piece by Mark Leibovich in this week’s New York Times on Senator McCain’s unabashed ignorance of all things digital has me alarmed.
Now, I am not saying that John McCain (or Barack Obama, for that matter) needs to know HTML, or explain what sputtering is, or even follow me on Twitter (although it’s a good idea). I am saying that he should be a little more respectful of what technology means to our world today. At minimum, he should be less proud of his ignorance.
After all, the Internet is no longer a mere convenience of the global economy–it is the global economy: some 183 billion emails–2 million per second–are sent every day, there are 80 million bloggers roiling in the blogosphere, and many Americans spend more on connectivity every month than they spend on gasoline. No, I don’t think the Senator needs to be a geek-in-chief, but he does need to show that he understands the paradigms of technology, because they are to a large extent the new forces behind the world we live in.
Ours is a complex world today made ever more so by the very technologies Mr. McCain diminishes. If elected he will find no blinking red phone on his Oval Office desk connecting him directly with the leader of the Other Side. Instead, he will need to link into a distributed world of shadowy networks(like the all-Internet Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Abu Sayyaf, and on and on); where policy decisions are fraught with hyperlinks and jump points and track backs and easter eggs; and urgent emails lose their oomph when printed out and bound into a briefing book. Mr. McCain aspires to lead in a world where 1000 days from now more people will be online than off, where every citizen owns a printing press cum TV station cum intel network; where the political landscape is an always-on lattice-work of data indicating either immediate dangers or imminent opportunities. In this new world, the US is a node–a big, vital, beautiful node to be sure–but a node nonetheless. Navigating that landscape is more challenging than ever and it helps to think in sync with these fragmented times. It will clearly be a handicap to be an analog thinker in a digital age.
And, if for no other than practical reasons. Mr. McCain needs to get keen on computers and the Internet right now. Consider the game-changing role the Net and Blogosphere are playing in this year’s election. For one thing, Senator Obama has raised more money than any candidate in history largely from small donations via the Internet. Perhaps he’d be a more competitive fundraiser if Senator McCain embraced the technology behind the coin of the realm.
If Mr. McCain needs a quick primer on the bedrock ideas behind today’s technology–and he is, I understand, a quick-study–I urge the Senator to reach out to Silicon Valley. Regardless of political stripe, the geeks here will gladly, proudly help him.
Nobody wants to be a pencil in a world of Blackberries. Certainly not the leader of the free fast world.
Tom Hayes is CEO and publisher of Edgelings.com and the author of Jump Point: How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business(McGraw-Hill 2008).
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45 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » The Next President Must Be Tech-Literate:[...] Read the full post here… [...]
Aug 6, 2008 - 12:23 am 2. Ed Wallis:Yeah, yeah. And maybe McCain should learn to play basketball or speak Spanish, too. Ya know, dude, to, like, look totally awesome.
So this author thinks McCain sounds out-of-date. I think this author is out-of-touch – high touch, baby – with the criteria essential to being President of these United States.
Aug 6, 2008 - 12:57 am 3. RE:This myopic author makes the mistake of thinking ‘his thing’ is the center of the universe. One could also make an argument that interacting with the world though a computer screen is less desirable than direct human-to-human communications.
Digital technology is just one of many technologies. Technology is just one of many disciplines. Each are important in their own right.
Ultimately, Computers are just another tool. Could it be the author that needs to unplug for awhile and rediscover the analog world?
Aug 6, 2008 - 3:03 am 4. ParisParamus:“Does that make you uncomfortable”?
What makes me uncomfortable is that wisdom and humility-devoid jerk Obama who comes up with the “energy policy” he has; who doesn’t know or care about economics, and history; and thinks that “speculators” can be punished.
Aug 6, 2008 - 3:48 am 5. Bob:How much time should the President spend on-line? Not much, I suspect. A President must delegate all types of tasks to those around him, and using computers is one of those tasks. I certainly won’t select a candidate for President or any other office on whether he’s more or less tech savvy than his or her opponent, and I hope that there aren’t many other voters who will either.
Aug 6, 2008 - 4:11 am 6. Locomotive Breath:What a moronic column. I don’t give a damn if a candidate can text or not. I want him to spend his time working on solutions to the issues facing the country.
Aug 6, 2008 - 5:03 am 7. Assistant Village Idiot:Rubbish. Do you want the POTUS deleting spam every morning? Presidents delegate. Wasting time learning how to download videos or registering on Amazon would be absurd. This is an essay version of the irritating cares-about-people-like-me poll question.
Aug 6, 2008 - 5:39 am 8. Ed Wallis:Mr. Hayes, sir, a thought:
…the next time there’s a nasty storm out by wherever you may live, and the juice runs out on your Blackberry, you may find that pencil, a piece of paper, matches, and a wind-up radio more essential to your well-being.
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone….”
Aug 6, 2008 - 5:59 am 9. david foster:“an analog thinker in a digital age”…I’m curious–are you able to define what the terms “analog” and “digital” actually mean, or are you simply using them as synonmys for “old-fashioned” and “modern”?
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:05 am 10. CyaNeos:You guys are just pissed that something as relevant as this is brought up. Last time I checked it was 2008 not 1958 you guys must all be over the age of 50. You still want the country to lead in your image but time and competence has passed you by. The future of this country is in things you don’t fully understand and that is youth, education, technology, and cooperation in this globalized community. The more you and your candidate talk the more you come off as grunting dinosaurs. Why don’t you just put the needle on another Bing Crosby record and try to relax and quit worrying about the kids on the lawn.
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:05 am 11. Alabama Dem:The key words from McCain’s remarks are…”I am forcing myself…”, then he catches himself. What a martyr, having to actually try and get a grasp of the 21st century. Soon enough, he’ll learn how to get on the intertubes all by himself. I guess he’d be more comfortable with telegrams. Stop. Get with the times, Gramps! Stop.
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:07 am 12. MJordan:It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:30 am 13. Aureliano:Sometime in 2006, somebody conducted a poll measuring people’s perceptions of the Iraq War, essentially asking, “Do you think the war is lost?”
Unlike many polls, however, it broke down the responses based upon profession. You’d think that those most inclined to believe the war lost would be people in academic or media jobs (for largely partisan reasons) — and certainly for such professions the percentage was over 50 — but those who believed mostly strongly that the war was already lost were actually scientists/engineers (it was around 80%).
In other words, it was the technical geek types who got it the most wrong, whose predictive abilities and sense of what’s going on were the most off-kilter. While this was only one poll, it nevertheless quantifies a pattern that I’ve seen repeated endlessly (I work in Silicon Valley, and have done so my entire professional life, to one degree or another). This is a surprise to no one but the geeks.
There is something about immersing oneself for decades in technical fields that insulates one from having a clue about the broader world. Part of the problem is provincial geek hubris — “I’m smart; engineering/technology is hard; therefore all I have to do is apply my superior brainpower to the silly little problems of politics and social issues and I’ll identify a solution in short order.” This sort of nonsense doesn’t mean much if the geek is just one or two years out of college, but the longer the geek spends NOT reading, thinking, or learning much outside of his technical field, the further behind he falls to those who are steadily accumulating knowledge and understanding of complex issues in the broader world (and God knows TV and the local newspaper are inadequate sources for this knowledge). In short, geeks have libraries full of technical books and little else. When such individuals fumble around with broader issues, they often look completely ridiculous, and are usually completely unaware of it.
Intellectual hubris and the wrongheaded belief that knowledge in one area is directly translatable into problem-solving ability in another area. Does this sound familiar? Which candidate demonstrates this tendency?
Perhaps McCain should be commended for knowing that an inclination to crap around with finicky, overly complex and buggy electronic devices is the sign of a small mind, not a great one.
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:36 am 14. ken magalnik:I’ll argue that engines, in their many forms, are considerably more important aspect of the world economy than computers are. Yet no one berates the candidates for not having a basic understanding of thermodynamics.
Aug 6, 2008 - 6:51 am 15. Charlie (Colorado):No, Tom, actually it doesn’t bother me. Speaking as a computer scientist. Cya, above, is a perfect example that you can be computer literate and still be a sneering nincompoop.
Aug 6, 2008 - 7:20 am 16. RE:I suspect that John McCain has a better appreciation of EMP technology than those who consider him a luddite.
Aug 6, 2008 - 7:36 am 17. CyaNeos:Aureliano:
Aug 6, 2008 - 8:45 am 18. MarkD:Just curious, what was our mission in the Iraq war? What do you qualify as a victory? If you knew then what you know now, would you have thought it was worth it? In 2003 how much do you think America should have had to pay (in dollars and lives) for achieving the victory in Iraq. (Its funny how this administration has lowered our expectations of victory so much in Iraq that stability is our new mission, they were pretty stable pre 2003.)
I’ll admit to well over 50. I’ve been working with computers for longer than many of the know-it-alls have been alive.
Computers are tools. They are good and versatile tools, but still tools. I’d prefer my president be an architect, or a general contractor, not a carpenter.
Aug 6, 2008 - 9:02 am 19. Assistant Village Idiot:CyaNeos, those are not intelligently-framed questions, despite their frequency the public discourse. What you clearly consider to be killer arguments I consider to be sloppy and incomplete reasoning. Delivering them in a condescending tone is not likely to be an effective persuasive tactic here – it only works on liberals. I think you do not see how much you prove our point. But if you want to try and go head-to-head with one of us stupid superannuated people here, I’m sure several will oblige.
Aug 6, 2008 - 9:13 am 20. CyaNeos:Of course I am condescending you people voted for George Bush twice! Besides what the hell do I need to write a thesis for. This is PJ Media, I put about as much time and effort into that as PJ writers do in their “hard hitting” propaganda (I mean articles).
Aug 6, 2008 - 9:28 am 21. John:John McCain was a fighter pilot during the war. That’s good enough techno know-how for me. He’s proven himself to be a leader. He has battled the VC not to mention the democrats and the republicans, he stand for principle and his country. As far as the internet goes, pissants like this a%$hole CyaNeos (yeah, Ive seen other idiotic remarks you’ve made), I don’t care what you think, I know you’ll write back condescending BS views that are factually wrong or just plain stupid but that is your right. A right John McCain would fight to make sure you would keep but you wouldn’t know anything about that.
Aug 6, 2008 - 9:40 am 22. MJordan:As I recall, McCain lost five U.S. Navy aircraft as a pilot, four by accidents and one shot down.
Aug 6, 2008 - 10:13 am 23. kabud:MarkD:
the person who does browsing for Johny and reads McCain’s emails :
IS THE ONE WHO CONTROLS HIS BUSINESS
So – that person, not McCain will be effectively ruling the Country
Aug 6, 2008 - 10:37 am 24. kabud:Aureliano:
you know, man, i ALWAYS admire you genius posts!!
may i invite you for a future media project we
conceive these days?
Would be an honor to work with you
skabud@gmail.com
Aug 6, 2008 - 10:40 am 25. Rand Simberg:I’m not sure what the point is of talking about two million emails per second is, considering that one million, nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand of them are spam.
Aug 6, 2008 - 10:55 am 26. Jay:Maybe McCain likes to get his porn in magazine form.
Aug 6, 2008 - 11:48 am 27. Northern Light:I’m guessing that George H.W. Bush I was the last computer illiterate president. I may be wrong on this though. If not Bush, then it would be Reagan.
I don’t know when exactly this became important, but I know I found it a bit disturbing that McCain couldn’t do “A Google” without his wife’s help. My mother is McCain’s age and she has no trouble with that internet thing.
Sure McCain can fly an antique plane, but if he is computer illiterate he would be lost trying to fly a 21st Century fighter.
If a candidate for president could not drive a car or use a telephone would that candidate’s supporters maintain that a president doesn’t need to dial his own phone or drive his own car? I don’t think computer illiteracy disqualifies McCain from public office, but you really have to wonder why he can’t learn something that many many people over 70 have mastered. Is it age? Intelligence maybe? Or perhaps he thinks that it’s all just a passing fad like television and washing your hands before performing surgery.
Aug 6, 2008 - 12:54 pm 28. Ed Wallis:The future of this country is in things you don’t fully understand and that is youth, education, technology, and cooperation in this globalized community. – “CoverYourAneos” 6:05am
Oh, yeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh…
Here comes another fiery-mouthed know-it-all.
YAWN, you FOOL…err…I mean, you CHILD.
If only could realize that, by saying exactly this in your ever-so-sanctimonious tone, you offer up…in a world-revealing naive-coddling way… confirmation of your Socialist leanings. Thanks, but NO THANKS.
The United States of America neither wants nor needs the socialist policies you promote NOR your politicians who superficially claim a desire for “democracy” or “equality” but neglect (in the case of The Obamboozler, however, NOT even so superficially or indirectly) to mention the totalitarian methods they would so gladly apply to achieve such utopian “dreams.”
“In your dreams,” you will only be the latest “Trotsky,” when the whip comes down.
Aug 6, 2008 - 1:50 pm 29. Jay:I’ve read more about what McCain has said about his computer ignorance. He also said he’s using the computer more to learn more. I believe what we have here is an issue blown way out of proportion more like a gotcha moment. “While 73 percent of American adults use the Internet (only 35 percent 65 or older), according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project”. This really is an attempt to paint McCain as OLD and out of touch. Well the last two presidents weren’t old and both sides think the president of the other side is SATAN himself and is responsible for the fall of this country. So maybe we need the OLD guy, maybe we need the guy with guts and wisdom to lead. The last OLD guy that was president did a pretty good job (now the attacks from the left). So after further reflection I file this story in the crap folder.
Aug 6, 2008 - 2:01 pm 30. Marc Boyd:I am almost 65.
My past included designing Micro Computer systems in the ’80s.
I still have the Sinclair(Basic programmed personal computer), and used Tandy, Altair, and Apple’s first generation.
I also had two iterations of Compaq computers in the early days.
Through all of this my Dad would have nothing to do with the things. He liked the zap of a key hitting paper and didn’t like correction tape (He didn’t make mistakes).
He had lost his left arm when young, but could out type me any day on his IBM Selectric. Point being, it met his needs and in his 70’s he was happy with it.
I served during Vietnam and was at DaNang for a year. Just before that, I tutored pilots in Electronics and the primitive computers that were built into many weapons and some avionics. I am sure John went through a lot of technical training on his aircraft. He is no total dummy on tech stuff. The Internet has exploded while he has been doing Congress duty. It sounds like he is learning IT fast.
Baraq H. Obama’s campaign personnel, and Baraq have still not comprehended that they are on 24/7 National and Global Internet media now, and it shows. I really wonder how Internet savvy the BHO camp is…from recent gaffs, not really.
So you have my NSHO.
Marc
Aug 6, 2008 - 8:51 pm 31. Marc Boyd:I forgot to mention, Click on my name for our many wildlife photos. We are not all political. We enjoy nature and Photography. Comments are always welcome. Check out the archives too if you like ACC airplanes.
Marc
Aug 6, 2008 - 9:04 pm 32. John Moore:As an engineer, a pilot and former navy aviator, and also an old guy… I can confidently say that John McCain was well exposed to technology – not as an engineer or scientist – but as a skilled user. He had to understand aerodynamics, basic physics, navigation and several other disciplines.
I’ve been using, programming and designing computers since before McCain (and I) went to Vietnam. I’ll take you on in an assembly language coding war any day you want (or Java, if you can’t handle the low level stuff). I make my living with computers and consider them (and the internet) transformational to society.
But going after McCain because he isn’t a geek or even very computer literate is silly. He obviously recognizes their importance (unlike Clinton’s FBI director, who crippled the FBI – leaving them with virtually no IT technology). Furthermore, his long tenure on the Armed Services Committee means he has lots of exposure to cutting edge technology, and probably knows a bunch of interesting stuff that only a security clearance brings.
I agree with other commenters… this is just a variation on the “McCain is old, man” narrative.
Give it a rest.
Aug 6, 2008 - 11:25 pm 33. yougogirl:I just accidently stumbled on this site. Wow! What a bunched of GRUMPY OLD MEN. I was born in 1948 and I know when it is time for a new generation to take over. Please step aside before this country is damaged beyond repair. Maybe it already is.
Aug 6, 2008 - 11:28 pm 34. Ed Wallis:Hey, “YugoGirl”…thanks for the amusing SOYLENT GREEN COMMENT! I guess we can expect to be eating you for breakfast in 5 years, when YOU turn 65, eh?!
Aug 7, 2008 - 2:24 am 35. Nancy Reyes:Using the internet? No. He can ask others to do this.
Aug 7, 2008 - 3:38 am 36. Fred, NJ USA:Understanding the world economy? That’s what he has economic advisors to do.
Understanding how to use the internet? At what level? Should he twitter notes all day on his blackberry to tell us what he’s doing?
Isn’t this the type of micromanaging that Jimmy Carter did?
Or do we want someone with wisdom, to make decisions on information that others find and advise him?
Let’s see. He doesn’t do email. He wont do email as President to keep the lawyers at bay. He does know avionics, flight control, radar and weapons systems. He has the cojones to land a fighter on carrier deck at night. He was an officer on carriers. These are nuclear powered floating airports with amazingly complex operations and technology. I don’t care if he doesn’t do Excel or email.
Aug 7, 2008 - 8:15 am 37. yougogirl:To Ed Wallis,
I am too tough for consumption by you wusses. PITIFUL GRUMPY OLD MEN.
Aug 7, 2008 - 8:59 am 38. Marianne:I assume he has staff that can do the extremely complicated emailing necessary? And maybe the staff can save him time to be a better president by doing so?
Good enough for me.
Aug 7, 2008 - 9:21 am 39. CyaNeos:Ed Wallis-
Aug 7, 2008 - 10:08 am 40. kabud:Why do you keep writing as if you are capable of biting satire? I am sure that the one person you see a day on your way to the mailbox in your bath robe thinks many things of you, funny or witty is not one of them however.
McCain is a bad candidate. Don’t fool yourself.
Obama is just a disaster.
we just are lazy to start a grass rout campaign and get rid of both political clown party forever
But we got to admit- either stealth communist Obama or likely compromised in Vietnam McCain are a real danger
whoes fault?
LOOK IN THE MOIRROR
this time it ma well be a coming global war.
Do you people have guts to turn things OUR way and unite behind SOME REAL CANDIDATE?
WHO?
THAT MUST BECOME OUR ISSUE.
Think in terms of coming war.
Aug 7, 2008 - 11:08 am 41. SEW:The next POTUS needs to know how to let our military electromagnetically disable Iranian computers and electronics and proceed from there. High tech stuff there. Maybe the VP will be Jindal. High tech is not needed to flip flop or attend racist sermons for 20+ years.
Aug 7, 2008 - 1:21 pm 42. SEW:The geeks will gladly help McCain? Google? By disabling conservative blogs?
Aug 7, 2008 - 1:27 pm 43. Ed Wallis:Mr. Hayes, Please note my remarks of Aug 6, 5:59am…
…and then take a look at this article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121824192073426161.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Aug 9, 2008 - 4:10 am 44. John Samford:Nonsense! You puppies have yet to learn that the human condition DOESN’T change. Technology just provides new toys/tools. The Humans working them have the same hopes, fears, dreams, and goals that humans of 50,000 years ago did.
Love is love, what you love makes no difference. Hate is the antipode of love. You cannot have love without hate. Neither has changed over the course of history.
Early man, cold wet and hungry in his cave, hated having to go out and track down something to eat. You, stuck in traffic, knowing you will be late and your boss will tear off a strip, hate rush hour.
The only difference between you and the caveman is that you have more things to hate.
If you consider that an improvement, it is your right.
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
Aug 9, 2008 - 8:23 am 45. Jack Okie:Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 – 1968)
YouGoGirl:
You sound like one tough old broad and a lot of fun. If 1948 birthdate was not a typo, I’m afraid you’re already in the cohort the youngsters want to “step aside”. Stick around and help us wusses to toughen up.
Sep 28, 2008 - 10:10 am