The Upsetting News Thread

[Linda]

Unfortunately, I really do think that Enterprikayak's solution is the one we will go with. And as those notebook computers shrink even more...they and the iphones...into the arm and not into the toilet. Then into the brain.

This is the way we are headed...

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

[enterprikayak]

The worst part is, that if I could simply forget all the dire warnings over the years by sci fi writers, the idea of me getting a GPS in my brain would be SO GREAT! I am so bad with directions that it is actually disabling to me. I regularly get lost in my own town, where I've lived almost my whole life, and I have to toodle around for kilometers before I find my way again. REGULARLY. Aureilia laughs at me when she sees me pull into driveways to turn around and go back the way we came. She's like "are you lost again, Mommy?" A brain GPS for me would be as world altering for me as a brain calculator for someone fully disabled in math.

But those sci fi writers have scared me.

[Alelou]

Actually, that part of your brain that deals with spatial orientation that is already a problem for you would shrink even further if you had GPS in the brain ... and then you might find yourself doing something like turning right onto train tracks just because the GPS tells you to.

Here's a fascinating article about it:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/10 ... ain_on_GPS

[Linda]

It is interesting to read this article. It confirms what Jim and I have experienced in using our GPS. We often ignore what it tells us and follow our own instincts. And I don't feel secure in using just the GPS, I get a better orientation in my mind by using a map as a quality control check on the GPS.

I found this bumper sticker which I may put on the back of my van:
"Don't follow me, I'm following my GPS."

If I could draw, I'd do this cartoon that has been simmering in my head:
picture a car which has gone off the road into a river and is half submerged. The conversation bubble pointing to the car says "Recalculating, recalculating".

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

If I could draw, I'd do this cartoon that has been simmering in my head:
picture a car which has gone off the road into a river and is half submerged. The conversation bubble pointing to the car says "Recalculating, recalculating".

We have problems here when foreign trucks arrive and their GPS tells them to drive on smaller forest roads instead of on the highways. Naturally many of them get stuck and have to be pulled up and towed. And naturally the drivers don't have the money to pay for it and it ends up on our taxpaying tab... Grrrrr!

[WarpGirl]

Eeek sounds like a bad deal all around.

[enterprikayak]

Yes, the GPS of today would be a disaster in someone's brain. Didn't Michael drive into the lake on The Office cause his GPS said turn right?

Course, that'd be no worse than me on a normal day.

--------------------------
Abby just screamed and I turn to look at her and she's playing with this pile of small animals. She's got her fist tight around a whale, and both whale and fist are in a sippy cup. So I got her to let go of the whale and take her hand out of the cup. I tipped the whale out and gave it to her. She put it back in the cup. She looked in the cup for the whale and reached in and grasped it. And her hand's stuck in the sippy cup again.

It's fun watching brains grow.

[WarpGirl]

I mean this in a non-creepy but I wanna be you right now. I mean with the kid and stuff. Biological clock has imploded. My sister and sister-in-law are pregnant, and well my cat is sleeping. Not very fun.

[enterprikayak]

i don't get the cat reference....

[WarpGirl]

My cat is my kid.

[Alelou]

Kids sleep too. Thank God.

[WarpGirl]

I know. But not for ten hours a day.

[enterprikayak]

ah. yes my cats too.

Our human girls are actually our fourth and sixth children. We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats.

And some chickens and goats and chinchillas and fish. But those aren't quite as childlike.

Maaa-aaaa.

[WarpGirl]

Yes I would like to be you. Well not really, but it would be nice to take care of a family.

[Aquarius]

My baby boy is gone.