physicalness vs. digitalness

there was a good piece a couple of new yorkers ago on container ships, these huge ginormous things that move all the crap around the world that people use in their lives. what got me about container ships, other than the fact that they're a complete universe we never see but that help us live (sort of like loading docks from the sidewalk), is that the world is still quite a large physical place, and material stuff still needs to be moved around it. it's something we're apt to forget doing so much of our living virtually, but the internet can't do much to streamline the transportation of goods from one place to another. so, to get that shower curtain or printer paper that we need we must resign ourselves to using the rather primitive technology of... big boxes. on boats.

another physical process that hasn't changed too much over the years is mining. the only significant innovation has been that bigger trucks can now move a lot more dirt more quickly. but really what're you gonna do? no matter how you slice it, mining is going to involve first, digging up a mountain and second, getting ore out of rocks. ain't no digital process that could help with that. at one of the mines i visited recently i learned that the milling and crushing equipment the mining companies produce is nearly identical to the machines from 100, even 200 years ago. unsurprising when you think about the fact that it's all a purely mechanical, physical process. mechanical machines. neat.