Monday, April 14, 2008

We Are Not Alone

It was 3:00 a.m. Our room was dark, as it ought to be, or was it? Something else shared the room with us. From every corner tiny lights glowed and glimmered. I counted 19 of them ... red, green, amber and blue ... ubiquitous, silent, waiting.  

They were our LED's (light-emitting diodes) that adorn every electronic device that we own. They tell us that the device is either working or on stand-by, waiting for a mouse click or other switch to summon the device into its intended action, a call to serve as it were. Our LED's are here to stay, a presumptive, primal part of this generation of technology. The only way I know to to render them lightless is to power them down at the end of each day. But then we have to power them all up again in the morning ... all 19 of them. I guess we'll just share our room.

3 comments:

Rachel said...

laughing. I like to think of them as adult night lights. I'm afraid of the dark so these work out well for me.

Sara said...

what are the 19? dvd, computer, cell phone, what else?

Larry said...

One cell phone charger; three surge control power strips; two lap tops; one PC; one flat screen monitor; one Bose speaker volume control; one wireless router; two printers; one copier; one cable modem ( four lights); one smoke alarm; and one cordless phone cradle = 19!