Tuesday 23 July 2013

Three Thousand And Three!

Somehow I missed my 3000th post here, letting it slip by without a mention, so I'm marking this one, my 3003rd blog post! Is that too many? Not enough? How should I know? I just work here. It's been over nine years writing here, and I'm still going strong. I haven't run out of things to say yet, obviously, though sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself.

Anyway, here's a quick thought about laziness and technology.

Any technology that makes it easier to be lazier will be misused, no matter its original intention. If we develop an "exercise pill" that gives you the same benefits as 30 minutes of vigorous exercise in order to maintain the health of people who can't do so, that exact same drug would be used by far more able-bodied people instead of going to the gym. It would be taken with dinner by sedentary loners, popped to maintain health during long study binges by students, laced into fast food and junk food to counter the effects of the fat and sugar, even ground up into baby food for fretful parents who think their kids should be crawling or walking by now. It's not just going to stay confined to astronauts, the elderly, the immobile and the unwell.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I heard about such a pill "in development" on some current affairs show.
PPS - At which point I thought "yeah, right", and thousands of people immediately stepped off their treadmills.

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