Speed of Thought

Some days I am perfectly clear headed, and some days my head feels like mush. On clear days I can tackle the most difficult problems, read the most complicated stories, solve the Daily Jumble in three seconds flat. Other days the comics are the most complicated thing I read. Taking a shower and getting dressed require all my concentration.

Several college students I know are taking speed to help them concentrate. It's not called speed, there are fancy pharmaceutical names for the stuff, but it's still speed. I wonder if it's really a good idea. I find motivation is great enabler of concentration. I am pretty sure the courses they are taking in school are just so much B.S.

Meth (Crystal meth, methamphetamine) is the horror drug of the moment. It's speed. Same stuff as the college students are getting from the pharmacy, but it's fancy pharmaceutical name isn't used, and the dosage isn't precisely measured. Rumor has it that it's the drug of choice for the working class. It enables you to get your work done, even when the job is boring and tedious.

I just saw an article in the paper this morning that says texting (sending text messages via cellular telephones) is way up, and actual minutes spent talking are down. Reminds me of the whole hive mind thing you find in science fiction.

There was one story I remember in particular where one group of people all had radio transceivers implanted in their heads so they were in constant communication with all the other members of their group. This caused a schism such that this group broke with the rest of society. They two groups still dealt with each other for some things. The independent group wanted to build some sort of giant ring in space. I think it was a star gate or some such, but it was complex, so they contracted with the hive mind group to build it.

So you could look at the Earth as the body. We have built a network of roads, which could be considered analogous to blood vessels, filled them motor vehicles, which would be analogous to blood cells, and now we are working on communications links, which would be analogous to nerve fibers. So maybe we are turning the Earth into one giant super-brain. It will be interesting to see where this goes.