Honey, I pulled the plug

We haven`t begun to plumb the business potential locked up in the human craving for convenience. And while there is every good reason for that in many cases, technology is not standing still, and entrepreneurs all over the Net are making piles of cash out of it.

Take divorce. I don`t know, nor do I want to know, how many marriages in SA end in divorce. Chances are the figure is even higher than in the US, which, according to some reports, stands at 50%.

So let`s say, for the sake of argument, it is 67%. Just looking at the friends I made at varsity, all of them fresh out of "broken" homes, I`d venture that two-thirds sounds about right.

What do we make of this? You could say societal fabric is tearing, a cornerstone of civilisation has all but crumbled and it has become far too easy to walk away from our problems than to take responsibility for our choices.

I have a funny feeling you`d be right, more or less.

It`s quite seductive to see the modern world and all its conveniences as much better than anything that went before.

Carel, technology editor, ITWeb

But others don`t see it like that. They say marriage is shrouded in too much mystery, bogus significance, tradition and romantic expectation. It doesn`t last and humans were never meant to be monogamous. They say the difficulty of dissolving a marriage stands in the way of it becoming what it should be - a commodity. One should be able to test drive and trade in a lemon. And if divorce laws have become as liberal as they have, why must technology be the Luddite when the legal profession, not known for its alacrity or adaptability, has shown the way?

It is precisely this kind of thinking that has made it possible to get divorced online. Sites like www.divorceonline.com (an advice-only site) are only the beginning. Others, like www.completecase.com and www.legalzoom.com offer to do your paperwork for you, according to a roundup by Reuters. Sign up, answer the questions, and print and sign the forms before filing them with the court.

DivorceMoney.com concentrates on financial issues such as how much you can expect to pay in alimony. Legal information from a Florida attorney is at www.floridadivorce.com, with links for e-mailing questions and participation in a forum. Couples in a hurry might qualify for a Nevada divorce in three to five weeks via www.nevadadivorce.net, or a Mexican divorce in seven days, at www.mexicandivorces.com.

At first, taking the easy way out in this way would appear cowardly and devoid of moral courage. The real McCoy seems all the more bitterly real and morally instructive for its painfulness. But the trouble is, the longer you look at it, and the more you consider the experiences of people you know who have gone through divorce, the more humane this course of action seems.

When you also consider that CompleteCase only caters for uncontested divorces, you ask yourself: Why go through all the pain of confronting someone you really can`t stand anymore, plus his or her lawyer cronies, if both of you agree it was a bad idea to begin with? Shouldn`t technology provide for a need such as this?

Perhaps. As the report would have it, the Internet, to an extent, de-emotionalises divorce, which for many is a traumatic experience.

It`s quite seductive to see the modern world and all its conveniences as much better than anything that went before. We laugh at our teachers` vehement opposition to calculators in school and at the distances people used to walk in the old days. Surely it`s better to have your own car at 17 than to be stuck at school when your parents are at a golf day? Or better to have all the mathematical functions at your fingertips than be able to add and subtract?

But it isn`t really. Really fast cars make us loath to stop and enjoy our country. Really nifty calculators, as I`ve said before, make you stupid. Mail order brides take away any semblance of actual significance in this, the most important partnership of your life. And, finally, being able to take an easy way out of your ill-considered marriage atrophies an entire faculty of emotional acuity.

But of course, progress marches on. Perhaps when it gets to the point where we pass on every responsibility, abstain from every feeling, avoid every opportunity to enjoy ourselves or learn, with all the trials and tribulations that accompany the art of living, we will understand that we have outsourced to the point where nothing is left. No emotion, no attachment, no responsibilities, just a pile of bills.