2.5.07

i woke up late-ish and went to the bank, where i bonded with the woman in line ahead of me over how slow the service was and over how to use the coffee and tea machine. it's this amazing device where you take a little capsule of whatever tea or coffee flavor you want, stick it in a drawer, put a cup under it, and press a button. moments later you have coffee or, in my case, green tea. you don't even have to open the little capsule because the machine punches a whole in it itself, and somehow the machine magically removes the shell of the capsule after the tea/coffee has been made. robots are gonna run the world some day.

i had this thought a while ago, and samir didn't like it at all. in fact, he shot it down completely with dislike. but i think it was kind of interesting. it was something like this: when computers get to be advanced past a certain point, there will be no real need for humans to either perform physical labor or practice logical thought. they will still have the abilities to do so, but it will be much cheaper to create machines to do these things than to pay workers to do the same things and with a greater chance of error. as a result, what will humans do? how will they make a living? what will they be paid for? they can work on the analytical end of the sciences, where creative thought is necessary. they can be artists (and maybe there will be more funding for the arts since it will be one of the last things left that only humans are capable of - that is, unless machine-made art passes as something aesthetically agreeable). they will essentially only really be needed for their analytical and abstract thinking skills, their compassion, and their creativity. will new jobs become available that better utilize these skills? it sounds like a beautiful thing in some ways; in others, not.

i was talking to a friend yesterday outside of cafe roma about a similar concept. we were discussing the fact that the internet, computers, and cell-phones remove the need for us to keep mental catalogs of certain things. that is, we don't remember phone numbers any more, we don't know how to spell words, and we don't even really need to know our history because we can look such things up on the internet in a matter of minutes. does this open up room in the mind for other things? will we use this brain-space and brain-power to do more analytical thinking as opposed to more fact-retaining? or will we just shut off part of our minds because they are not being used? i'm curious about it.

i moved downstairs today. everything but all of my clothing, a violin, and some random junk is in my new room. it's about twice the size of my old room, with a bigger closet and with its own entrance. i share a bathroom and kitchen with one other person now, instead of with four others.

i'm learning that i am horrible at keeping track of my phone and keys. they're like pets without leashes, and they wander off.