How to Remain Optimistic
If we ever create an artificial intelligence that is truly superior to us, it may well keep us around to make itself feel superior. It also may to try to improve us, in the spirit of helping the less fortunate.
Imagine a future where robots constantly criticize us or instruct us how to do things, then smother us with condescending praise as we try to follow their advice.
I might prefer extermination.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Address an Ongoing Argument
Of course, the problem with the stun setting is that whoever you stun falls down, and could easily break a bone, suffer serious neck or back injuries, receive a concussion, or “accidentally” die in any number of ways.
I figure the Starfleet equivalent of Internal Affairs would be bugging Kirk on a weekly basis.
Starfleet Inquisitor: I’m here to talk about that Klingon you killed.
Kirk: I stunned him.
Starfleet Inquisitor: In the back, and then he fell three hundred feet.
Kirk: It’s not my fault he was standing on the edge of a cliff.
Starfleet Inquisitor: We have reason to believe you stunned him, then dragged him to the cliff and rolled him off.
Kirk: (stuns the Starfleet Inquisitor.)
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Tackle a Project That Seems Impossible
I was the receptionist at an office where everyone had to fill out a specific form every day. Almost nobody did it. The person in charge made it my responsibility to make sure everyone filled out their form.
Of course, I was the lowest person on the totem pole in that office, so I couldn’t use fear of punishment to make them fill out the form. Instead, I had to rely on charm and their respect for me and my opinion of them.
I’d bet that you can predict how well that worked.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Explain Yourself
A mutual friend once asked Ric how someone gets through my shell to know “the real Meyer.” Ric told them that there is no shell, and what they thought was a shell was “the real Meyer.” Ric told me that later, and I found it funny. He also told me that the person he was talking to looked horrified at that idea, which I found hilarious.
Which, now that I think about it, might be part of the problem.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Be Yourself
There have been times when I’ve been afraid, and I have muttered the following to myself:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
Many of you probably recognize that’s a quote from Dune. Obviously, I wasn’t afraid of looking like a dork.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Compare and Contrast
I worked at the juice bar at a health club. The sales staff used to come sit at the bar and talk about their work. I would listen to them. I have never even considered signing up for a membership at a health club since.
Also, the lifeguard used to come hang out at the juice bar. Note: I did not say that he did this when he was “off duty.” He would often be the only lifeguard on duty when he was at my bar instead of in his super-tall chair by the pool. I asked him how he could see people drowning in the pool in another room while watching the TV at the juice bar. His answer was, “Someone’ll come get me. There’s plenty of time. The human brain can last four minutes without oxygen.”
Like I said, I haven’t even considered joining a health club since I worked at that place.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Plan a Group Vacation
In a group vacation, it doesn’t matter how many members of the party are planners, how much thought they’ve all put into the plan, or how enthusiastically everyone agrees to the plan. It only takes one member of the group to be a play-it-by-ear type to completely derail the plan and force everyone else to play it by ear with them.
Want to see this in action? Go to the Target store near the main entrance to Walt Disney World some morning at about the time the parks open. You will see multiple clusters of frustrated looking people with one member of their group saying that they’re “just popping in” for sunscreen, ponchos, and “while I’m here, I’ll take a quick look at the sweatshirts.”
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).
How to Accept a Difference of Opinion
When I was a kid, my mother thought video games were a complete waste of time and money. She maintained that opinion until my younger brother’s best friend brought over his Gameboy, and she got her first taste of Tetris. Within a month she bought herself a Gameboy and a Tetris cartridge. That cartridge never left the cartridge slot, and that Game Boy never left the vicinity of her easy chair for a good decade at least, until it stopped working. She played Tetris every chance she got.
Don’t worry, though. As far as she was concerned, every other video game was still a waste of time and money.
As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).