I was recently arranging to purchase some letterpress items, from fonts to composing sticks, in order to look at making some elements of the printing process by hand. At the same time I have on my shelf an old DVD burner kept because inside it somewhere is a laser, and old hard disc with a strong magnet one may retrieve at some time. The whole idea of printing, using a hand powered printer and putting the text together, doesn’t phase me at all because if I can see the nuts and bolts I am sure I can handle something because I know with a manual I could repair it (given the tools).
But the more electronic things become the less I understand and so the more I rely upon others. I can strip a PC down and put one together with the ease of off-the-shelf parts, but I could never repair a motherboard. It seems that for me the physical ability to manipulate something is close to understanding it, whilst knowledge of something from books doesn’t seem to be deep knowledge at all.
It is the difference between being able to hold a picture of the thing in ones mind, through-and-through, and not not having a clear picture at all. And it worries me how much of society today I lack clear pictures of and if it worries me, it must be scaring some people.