My dad bought a quarter-acre block overlooking Sydney’s Northern Beaches for 400 pounds.
That was about eight week’s salary. Mum had her hands full looking after three kids. But it was made easier because groceries, fruit, bread, milk and the newspaper were all delivered to the door. My family got TV back in 1956.
There were just three TV channels to choose from. My first memorable program was the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Mum and dad had a record player for their vinyl LP collection and we listened to ABC Radio plays like Blue Hills, by Gwen Meredith.
I had an adventurous childhood, cycling and cliff-climbing, hiking down our nearby waterfall, bush-walking, fishing in the lake, body surfing and board riding and sailing every weekend. Nobody even dreamed of digital devices and computer games. In a sense, my life WAS the computer game, and I was the avatar having all the adventures.
From when I was five I used to walk two miles home from school. There were no pedophiles and no ‘stranger danger’. There was no crime of any kind that I can remember. No fear. No-one going mad.
There was no autism, no ADHD, no allergies, practically no asthma.
Workers were paid in cash and bills were paid with bank cheques. There were no frantic homicidal computer games, no online scams, no pedophile networks, no trolls, no bullying, no grooming, no youth suicides, no manosphere, no incels, no explicit porn, no fake news, no encrypted murder contracts, no disengaged screen addicts, no mental health pandemics.
Today we are bombarded by endless choice and a constant feeling of disempowerment, unable to keep up with ever-changing technologies.
We’ve paid a very high price for the digital revolution, without nearly enough ‘due process’ to monitor the consequences of rolling it out in such an unregulated way, driven only by corporate profit. The AI roll-out is out of control. Data centres are being built with seemingly unlimited budgets, consuming vast amounts of water and electricity. Climate Change has been marginalised and put on the back-burner at a time when it should be front of mind. It is imperative to put AI back in its box and make sure it has the safeguards and algorithms to work for the good of humanity. Before it is too late!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
