To have and have not

We don't know how anything works anymore.  Sure, we know how to use it, but we don't have the slightest idea why it does what it does.  I don't know much about cars, but I can remember adjusting the timing on a car that had dual distributors, replacing a clutch slave, and doing the basic stuff that we all used to do when we could work on cars.  Now I barely know where the oil filter is, and there's not much a lot of us can do with cars anymore.  It's the same with a lot of technology.  You can take something apart,  and sometimes you, or more likely a "technician," can find what appears to be the problem.   But there's really nothing you/he/she can do about it but replace the part, or more likely just buy a new one.

And do you really understand electricity?  I don't think anybody does.  Imagine going back in time.  Could you really tell them much of anything or build much of anything? 

Society is increasingly being dichotomized into those that use technology and those that understand it.  That is, the haves and have-nots used to refer to wealth, but it increasingly is referring to knowledge, particularly technical knowledge.  But it's not just information, it's information that informs.  It's incredible how little of that there is.