During the course of a drive into work, the human mind often drifts and ponders many areas of tangential interest, either triggered by a chance encounter with that topic at some time in the recent past, or simply the seemingly random confluence of neural pathways uncovering said topic, akin to driftwood, or more specifically tumbleweed rolling between the feet of two Wild West gunslingers looking to terminate each other with unnecessary aplomb.
The reaction of the brain to this unwarranted trigger is very similar to that of a toddler who sees a big red button, while the said infant begins depressing this button repeatedly with increased gusto, the brain follows suit and dives headfirst into the topic so randomly chosen for your next mental mastication session.
One such topic I have been masticating upon has been how fortunate most of us are to have our daily job involve significantly greater participation from our mental faculties while the bare minimum is expected from our physical prowess or lack thereof. It does not strike me as coincidental, and I rather conclude that for generations our ancestors have guided us to achieve excellence in education and thereby develop our brains because at some point some of them must have deduced that humanity is inherently extremely lazy. And a consequence of this laziness will result in humans physically evolving from the tall, broad-shouldered Homo sapiens who explored the length and breadth of this globe, combatting the elements, predators, and everything else to become the planet's foremost species into a veritable blob of flesh deposited on a comfortable couch with the TV remote in one hand, a smartphone in another and with some sugary snacks or drinks in close proximity. The present company is guilty of being a representation of the above, excluding any fondness for sugary snacks or beverages.
It has dawned upon me, that were I, or many of us, required to have greater physical abilities for even our simple survival, that would be something we have neither been trained for nor have the slightest predisposition towards. Think about it, we as a race have been in an endless quest for convenience, innovating absolutely brilliant contraptions starting from the TV remote control to the automatic transmission motor vehicle and every thingummy in between. I mean, just the concept of an audiobook transcends the already supremely luxurious action of lounging in a comfortable chair reading a book, to consuming it via our auditory pathways instead.
If this trend is to continue, and I have nothing to deny it will, then my mind cannot yet comprehend the extent of this affinity to convenience. Where will it take us? Will we have electric toothbrushes which fly into our mouths? Will we have shoes with wheels like a Roomba which slip themselves onto our feet? Will we have emails that auto-respond using Chat GPT for context? Will we have innovated enough algo automations to replace our daily interactions with family, friends, and even pets? I do not know, but I am sure my brain will continue to masticate on these and other outcomes over the next several drives to and from the office!
