Technology and Freedom

When I wrote the short story Shade to be included in the book Rambling I was playing with ideas that have been used before, but I wanted to give it a little different spin. In most stories with dystopian societies it is the Government that has all the best tech. What if the techs didn't like the idea of technology running everyone's life? Freedom has always offered the best chance for everyone to advance, so in my story it is the rebels who have the best tech. It was so much fun to write that I am working on the next episode in the lives of Shade, and Sieda. It will still be taking place in a world that is a cross between Demolition Man and 1984 but with a much more advanced and sophisticated underground, called the Sub-Gridders because they live just under the grid. They have access to the grid and all of the good things that technology brings when used to advance knowledge and freedom instead of being used to control the masses. This post was inspired by the story of a U.S. Senator who was the victim of technology this week at an airport. Some say that the machine was making a random pick to find the next person for extra scrutiny instead of relying on a human to do it. Now that is scary. Will we become slaves to our machines or will we be their masters?