—What evolution would you like to see as it relates to this technology?

Crane: Honestly, I've seen the new sewing machines and I have zero interest. They embroider, they have computers that do all kinds of things. I can embroider quite well by hand. I just need it to go backward and forward. As fascinated as I am by technology, sometimes I'm not convinced we're any better for it.

Dahlie: I’d like to see more ways for young people to resist coercion. I’m not sure what the status of the fountain pen is these days in the UK, but I can’t imagine it’s the same, given all the obvious changes in technology. For my part, I always hated the bizarre adult fanaticism for teaching young people to read and write, although I suppose I can see some merit in it today. All the same, I’m still not sure it was worth it in my case, especially since my penmanship remains terrible.

D’Souza: Honestly, I'd like to see the Washlet make the leap across the Pacific in a big way. Because ever since I've been back I can't get the thought out of my head, at the movies, at the supermarket, 'Everyone around me right now has a dirty asshole.'

Scibona: To this day, if there is a television in the room, it’s a struggle for me not to turn it on and sit down in front of it. I can’t own one. Hotel rooms pose a special challenge: the smallest I ever stayed in—only half again as wide as the bed, and lacking a window—still had room for a color television and two dozen channels. My hope—unfair to all the non-addicts for whom an hour in front of the tube is as harmless and pleasant as a beer after mowing the lawn—is that all the televisions will be eradicated from the world.

Jaime Clarke is the author of the novel WE’RE SO FAMOUS, editor of DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME: CONTEMPORARY WRITERS ON THE FILMS OF JOHN HUGHES, and co-founder of POST ROAD, a national literary magazine based out of New York and Boston.