Rational Insanity
Reinventing inventions
The new millennium saw the advent of thousands of inventions that not only changed the lives of those in this generation but also rehashed civilization as we know it. As the world gets smaller and smaller everyday because of innovations in communication, the margin for new inventions gets narrower and narrower each day. What is there left to invent when everything from biometric clothes to smart toilet paper has already been invented? It's a known fact that necessity is the mother of all invention, but the way it is now, new inventions create a need among people instead of inventions responding to the needs of society. As a tribute to this era of inventions, let me play on your creativity and present you with certain existing inventions, but perhaps, so inventors would consider 'need' while they invent something else, I will put a new twist to these existing inventions to get our mental cogs and wheels going. Perhaps, we would all realize that at the moment, there is still nothing we could truly consider a 'perfect invention'.
1. A cellphone with a built-in cigarette lighter - while it is true that cellphones nowadays can do pretty much everything, none of these nifty gadgets could actually light a cigarette.
2. An MP3 player that automatically plays the songs that we want to listen to according to our moods - for it to be able to do this, it should consider building in a telepathic link with its owner.
3. A laptop that can dispense drinks, coffee in particular - laptop=internet=coffee, makes sense, does it?
4. A television set that flashes your weight on the screen and the calories that you have taken in while watching your show -- this will hopefully spell the end for couch potatoes. Obesity is an indirect result of couching out and munching stuff in front of a television set.
5. A webcam that automatically gives you a digital make-over -- wouldn't it be nice showing your face to the world when the computer itself chooses the best look for you then automatically beams that image to the receiving end of your web cam? It should also retain your actual face, not beam some photograph of some movie star to the other end.
6. A bathroom scale that gives you a virtual workout every time it detects that you are overweight -- to add to this, the virtual workout actually trims off the extra weight that you gained. In a variation of this, maybe a virtual gym would also be nice. Imagine sweating it out and losing the calories without the pain and time spent in the gym?
7. A PDA (personal digital assistant, i.e. Palm) that can actually, and I mean REALLY recognize handwriting! Most PDAs that claim to be able to recognize handwriting actually don't.
8. An invisible bluetooth headset -- most people think that headsets are an accessory, well, I don't, I don't like being seen with a headset on me.
9. An electric car that you don't have to drive -- you just get in, and you tell the car where you want to go, and it does all the driving for you.
10. An all in one laundry machine, and I mean, all-in-one - get your clothes in, they come out clean, dried, pressed, and folded to perfection, and it should be able to do all these things in a few seconds!
Am I asking too much with these re-invention of inventions? Well, at least I am asking for them. I am the one demanding that my needs be met, instead of falling victim to inventions that I don't really need but create a need in me. I wonder, we all survived only fifteen years ago without cell phones, how come we panic when our mobile phones conk out and die on us during a gimmick night? Have we truly become slaves to technology?
Be rational; be insane... every once in a while!TTFN!
I love you all! Byers!