Being stupid in a smart city

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

This morning was a horrible mess. There was a power failure and my computer did not get recharged. It did not wake me up in the morning as programmed. By the time I realized what was happening, I was half an hour late and in a big rush. I had so much trouble finding my way to the toilet as my GPS was not working too.

By the time I got into the toilet I was stuck and lost. My computer would normally instruct me to either wash my face or brush my teeth first depending on which one it thought would be of priority. I stood in front of the basin trying to decide what to do for the first time on my own. Then I have to decide whether to take a bath or skip it. My computer decided that for me too, by sensing the level of my body odour. If acceptable, it would tell me to skip the bath and not to waste water.

When I got out of the house, another problem cropped up. Which route should I take to get to the MRT station? This was the job of my computer. It would always choose the best path with the least people and most pleasant to walk. Now again I had to decide what I should do when I had long forgotten how to do it. At the traffic light again I was stalled. The computer would decide when I should cross the road safely and it was now up to me take the risk to cross the road unaided by the computer. So risky.

At the MRT station I was looking for the traffic lights to tell me if the station was too crowded. But it did not as it was also affected by the power failure. And I was not sure whether to go in the station or take an alternative transport to my office. I did not know doing simple things like getting to the office could be so difficult without the computer. And I have programmed everything, spending on a small fortune on the computer and all the softwares. Now the computer ad made me stupid and over dependent on it.

What about the other computer illiterate senior citizens? Can they afford to buy a computer to lug along wherever they go? And could they be as smart as me in using the computer? Maybe I should get someone to develop a chip that can be inserted into computer illiterate idiots to make them smart so that they can benefit from living in a smart city.

I am still stuck at Raffles Place not knowing which is the best route to take to reach MBFC. I need to get my computer charged first to be able to get my life back to normal.
http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2...ingapore+News)


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.