Oh God. If you've been reading for my blog for awhile, you already know of my robotphobia. Well, I was busy reading a book (of which you are going to get a good smattering of over the next few days) called "The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries" by Damon Wilson. And Mr. Wilson has informed me that you are a robot. Not only that, but I am a robot, too!
"We all have within us a robot, akin to the automatic pilot in an airplane, whose task is to simplify our lives by handling a series of routines. Learning to type or speak French or drive a car requires considerable effort and concentration, but once we have mastered it, our robot takes over and does it far more quickly and efficiently than we could do it consciously. The trouble is, the robot can become so efficient that it takes over most of our life. We begin to live like a robot. We automatically drink our martini, eat our dinner, watch TV. It takes a holiday or some sudden crisis to jar us out of this automatic living, to allow our real selves to take over from the robot.
".......For, like our bodies, our feelings are also controlled by the robot. We seldom experience new feeling. For the most part, we play the same old phonograph record over and over again - a record that, except in times of crisis, is full of bland harmonies. Our minds contain a vast unused library of 'phonograph records'. And not just our minds. The world around us is full of an infinite number of interesting things that the robot has been trained to ignore.
"Human beings live within arbitrary limits. Not only do we have an arbitrary idea of our powers and capabilities, but we also have an arbitrary idea of our powers and capabilities, but we also have an arbitrary idea of the complexity and interestingness of the world around us. Habit has confined human beings in a thoroughly stale universe."
I totally agree with everything this guy is saying.....but I HATE the robot analogy. Note to self: Do something interesting and not habitual today. Don't let the robot take over.
