There’s a certain simplistic charm in tossing a twenty-sided die to determine how the future will play out; when that element of chance is handed over to a computerized random number generator, something is undeniably lost. Many Dungeons and Dragons players take pride in their old school pen and paper methods, and it’s easy to understand why (see “The Secret Order of Pen and Paper Geekdom”). At its core, D&D is a social game — the face to face interaction is an important basic element. Piling technology on top of that does not improve gameplay. If anything, it only gets in the way.

With RIT’s heavy emphasis on applied science and technical training, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not everything improves with the addition of new technology. Yeah, it would be cool if I could pay for my Peanut M&M’s with nothing but my fingerprint (see “Biometrics”), but is that really necessary? Would I really want tuition to go up another 6% next year to fund such a frivolous project? Do I really want RIT keeping my fingerprint on file? Not so much.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. Sometimes, technology is not the best answer. Sometimes, you need to leave well enough alone. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to shut down your laptop and bust out the pen, paper, and twenty-sided die.