Hightower Lowdown

“Why?” I ask myself this question whenever I flip through any of those slick catalogues hawking the latest in high-dollar gizmos. Why is so much brainpower frittered away on frivolous crap?

You want crap? Try house slippers with headlights. Or a $250 rapid-fire toaster that can pop out 130 slices of toast per hour. If this thing appeals to you, let me be the first to tell you: You’ve got a toast problem, buster, and it’s time to spend money on professional help, not on 130 slices an hour.

Some of it is absurdly expensive crap pitched to the pampered rich, like the $90,000 Audi A8, which has 65,000 electrodes to scan your fingerprints so you can open its doors by waving your hand. If that’s not lazy enough, try the FMD-700 Eye Trek glasses that use prisms to alter the line of sight so you can lie flat in bed and watch TV. Why strain yourself by sitting up?

The techno-consumer magazine Stuff has unwittingly expressed the whining ethic behind this mindless production and consumption: “We’ve launched missions to Mars,” says Stuff, “so why can’t we build a robot that can pour us a drink?”

Well, Stuff, undoubtedly we can and probably will, but the question is, “Why?” Shouldn’t we focus our technological genius on the world’s real needs?