I have often been heard to say that if I ran the universe, all light bulbs would have the same base, electricity would be same voltage in every country, TV signals would be universal, DVDs would not have different regional codes, all cell phones would be unlocked, and everyone would drive exactly in the middle of the road. (OK, I made the last one up. The truth is I don't care whether everyone drives on the left or on the right, so long as it is universally standardized.) I am in exact alignment with Melvil Dewey concerning the efficiency of standardization; it is nonsensical to me that people make life so much more difficult than it needs to be.
He must have been an amazing individual. To have such definite ideas while so young, and to be able to implement any of them, is extraordinary. I wish he had been able to get phonetic spelling and switching every country to the metric system, off of the ground.
Technology has helped somewhat. At least I can google what time it is wherever my husband is traveling, so that I don't interrupt his sleep. Slingbox has somewhat solved the TV signal problem; most TVs sold today have built-in signal converters, so you don't have to buy a special converter unit; and texting is changing the landscape of spelling. I even heard a commercial from Lowe's hardware store yesterday that advertised how, if you input the sku number from your home improvement device, their system would store it and tell you what consumables you needed when you were shopping there. Nifty. No more pondering which light bulb you need, as long as you've taken the time to put the right sku in their system.
Cell phones seem to have gone the way of the metric system - America and Japan are the last holdouts. You can buy an unlocked cell phone here, but it voids the warranty. Grrrr.
So, I am firmly in Dewey's camp.
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