Technology In Brett Harte's The Outcasts Of Poker Flat

Harvard’s Professor of Business Administration, Shoshana Zuboff, has remarked, “Technology makes the world a new place.” This statement not only applies to our ever-changing technology, but also for older technology. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”, a short story set in olden times where technology was not abundant; technology in the sense that we think of it today had yet to be developed during the time of this story. Today, we categorize modern technology as smartphones, computers, the internet, and other objects that require electricity. However, in the times of “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” the modern technology consisted of the telegraph and the repeating rifle. There was such a meager amount of technology invented that the typewriter, telephone, phonograph, and incandescent light bulb we not yet developed. The Outcasts of Poker Flat would change dramatically with the inclusion of a set of wireless walkie talkies that Tom Simson made. In Brett Harte’s short story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, four people of the town Poker

It also would be interesting to see how the author, Bret Harte, would change the plot in order to still make it interesting to the reader. If I were the author of the story, in order to include the walkie talkies I would have made Tom Simson an inventor and made one of his creations a set of walkie talkies. Accidentally leaving a walkie talkie in another town means it can be used to contact help. Even though Uncle Billy is a thief and took their supplies, he would not have been able to steal the walkie talkie because they would have been with Tom Simson. All in all, reading the tale The Outcasts of Poker Flat that has a set of wireless walkie talkies inserted into the plot would be very interesting and different from the original