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9 For Better or For Worse

“MY NAME IS OZYMANDIAS, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” This quote from Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” (1817) is the inscription on a statue of a ruler better known today as Ramses II of Egypt. The once-mighty statue now lies broken and scattered in the desert. The poem ends: “Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Like the works of King Ramses, something that seems a permanent feature can fade away, ignored and forgotten as it is replaced by something new. Technological wonders that are new and exciting today are taken for granted tomorrow. In a similar way, our interaction with technology can be like a mediocre marriage, ...

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