That’s the impression we’re supposed to get.  According to a recent report I heard somewhere (radio, TV, Interwebz), at the pace of current technological development, humans will soon need to have some sort of implantable device simply to manage all of the information that will be coming in. 

Imagine, a chip that unlocks and starts your car when you walk up.  Tune your brain to CNN or Fox for a 24×7 news feed.  Pick up your groceries and walk out of the store without ever having to stop to check out.  Alert you to medical issues and send your vitals to the Dr… or send an automated call for help in a medical emergency.  Exceed the speed limit on the highway and a sensor automatically generates a traffic ticket, sets the date on your e-calendar, and charges your credit card for the bail.   

It sounds like paradise, no?

Well not to get all Michael Crichton technophobe here, but I’m just not so sure.   But it’s the world we’re living in.

At any rate, like many CA hunters I was excited to hear that the DFG would finally release the new Automated License System (ALS), allowing us to get our licenses and apply for tags electronically.  How nice it would be to avoid that last-minute rush to the DFG office to get a tag, or not to arrive at some remote sporting goods store only to find they just ran out of pig tags. 

Well, after my first experience with the system, I’ve got mixed feelings.  The user interface isn’t exactly the friendliest, but it does work.  And it was nice to just run through my selections for the deer and elk draws and not have to worry about mailing the cards back in time.  But as a lifetime license holder, I was really sort of spoiled on just receiving all of my stuff in the mail each spring.  In the new system, I had to go through tag-by-tag to sign up for all of the things I’d already paid for… my upland stamp, state waterfowl stamp, and five pig tags.  It seemed like a kind of convoluted process, since all of these things are already recorded. 

And then I received my license in the mail.  Check this out!

 That ten-foot string of paper (or whatever this is made of) is my hunting license for 2011, along with all of my tags.  This is what I’m supposed to carry with me when I’m hunting. 

It’s certainly not the end of the world, and won’t be a backbreaking load to carry in my pack, but doesn’t this just seem wrong?  If the automated system is supposed to reduce paper, is this a step backward (or at least laterally)? 

How about you other CA hunters.  Do you find your new licenses a bit unweildy?  Do you care? 

What thoughts do you have about ways to improve this?

What about hunters from other states… how does your state handle this?

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