Thanks Aunt Juli for sending it to me, very interesting. Loved it.

The Outsourced Brain
By DAVID BROOKS
The gurus seek bliss amidst mountaintop solitude and serenity in the meditative trance, but I, grasshopper, have achieved the oneness with the universe that is known as pure externalization.
I have melded my mind with the heavens, communed with the universal consciousness, and experienced the inner calm that externalization brings, and it all started because I bought a car with a G.P.S.
Like many men, I quickly established a romantic attachment to my G.P.S. I found comfort in her tranquil and slightly Anglophilic voice. I felt warm and safe following her thin blue line. More than once I experienced her mercy, for each of my transgressions would be greeted by nothing worse than a gentle, ?Make a U-turn if possible.?
After a few weeks, it occurred to me that I could no longer get anywhere without her. Any trip slightly out of the ordinary had me typing the address into her system and then blissfully following her satellite-fed commands. I found that I was quickly shedding all vestiges of geographic knowledge.
It was unnerving at first, but then a relief. Since the dawn of humanity, people have had to worry about how to get from here to there. Precious brainpower has been used storing directions, and memorizing turns. I myself have been trapped at dinner parties at which conversation was devoted exclusively to the topic of commuter routes.
My G.P.S. goddess liberated me from this drudgery. She enabled me to externalize geographic information from my own brain to a satellite brain, and you know how it felt? It felt like nirvana.
Through that experience I discovered the Sacred Order of the External Mind. I realized I could outsource those mental tasks I didn?t want to perform. Life is a math problem, and I had a calculator.
Until that moment, I had thought that the magic of the information age was that it allowed us to know more, but then I realized the magic of the information age is that it allows us to know less. It provides us with external cognitive servants ? silicon memory systems, collaborative online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge. We can burden these servants and liberate ourselves.
Musical taste? I have externalized it. Now I just log on to iTunes and it tells me what I like.
I click on its recommendations, sample 30 seconds of each song, and download the ones that appeal. I look on my iPod playlist and realize I?ve never heard of most of the artists I listen to. I was once one of those people with developed opinions about the Ramones, but now I?ve shed all that knowledge and blindly submit to a mishmash of anonymous groups like the Reindeer Section ? a disturbing number of which seem to have had their music featured on the soundtrack of ?The O.C.?
Memory? I?ve externalized it. I am one of those baby boomers who are making this the ?It?s on the Tip of My Tongue Decade.? But now I no longer need to have a memory, for I have Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia. Now if I need to know some fact about the world, I tap a few keys and reap the blessings of the external mind.
Personal information? I?ve externalized it. I?m no longer clear on where I end and my BlackBerry begins. When I want to look up my passwords or contact my friends I just hit a name on my directory. I read in a piece by Clive Thompson in Wired that a third of the people under 30 can?t remember their own phone number. Their smartphones are smart, so they don?t need to be. Today?s young people are forgoing memory before they even have a chance to lose it.
Now, you may wonder if in the process of outsourcing my thinking I am losing my individuality. Not so. My preferences are more narrow and individualistic than ever. It?s merely my autonomy that I?m losing.
I have relinquished control over my decisions to the universal mind. I have fused with the knowledge of the cybersphere, and entered the bliss of a higher metaphysic. As John Steinbeck nearly wrote, a fella ain?t got a mind of his own, just a little piece of the big mind ? one mind that belongs to everybody. Then it don?t matter, Ma. I?ll be everywhere, around in the dark. Wherever there is a network, I?ll be there. Wherever there?s a TiVo machine making a sitcom recommendation based on past preferences, I?ll be there. Wherever there?s a Times reader selecting articles based on the most e-mailed list, I?ll be there. I?ll be in the way Amazon links purchasing Dostoyevsky to purchasing garden furniture. And when memes are spreading, and humiliation videos are shared on Facebook ? I?ll be there, too.
I am one with the external mind. Om.
posted by Bryan at 10/31/2007 05:44:00 PM

Why is it that customer service representatives can be so unhelpful and that technology isnt better at helping people. Here is my scenario. I ordered a product from Tiger Direct today, with next day shipping. I am having it shipped to a different address, since I travel so much.

Great. Order placed. So I run to a meeting, and get back, and log into the Tiger Direct website to double check the status. It says order pending verification. Since I'm keen to get this product soon, I figured I better call them and just see if there is anything they need me to verify.

My first call, I get a representative practically on the first ring. Great! Or so I think. I'm then transferred to the credit card dept. I wait on hold for 10 minutes. The rep then tells me that since the address is not listed with my credit card company, they cant ship to that address.

So I said lets get them on the phone, they said no, I need to call them. So I call Wells Fargo, and press ZERO a bunch of times. I get someone and its the wrong department, she gives me a different number, I call that and press Zero again a bunch of times. She says I have the wrong number, but is at least helpful to transfer me to the right place. I then wait another 3-5 minutes, and get my new shipping address added.

I then call Tiger Direct back, again a speedy response, and a transfer to the credit card department. I wait another 8 minutes, the phone rings, I then hear music. I wait another 5 minutes, and then I'm hung up on. (My guess, a rep took a call, put it on hold, went to the bathroom, then hung up)

Another call, a transfer, and again I wait another 8 minutes. I explain my situation, they call wells fargo (which they should have done in the first place) and verify that address is on there.

The rep comes back and says the address doesnt match. I insist that the address has been added, and explain perhaps it doesnt match because of the apartment number or something isnt an exact match. He says okay, and says he will call and speak to someone at Wells Fargo. Again I wait.

Wells Fargo tells the rep that their system is updating. The rep tells me there is nothing I can do but wait. It's past the 4pm eastern cutoff now, so the order wont ship till tomorrow. Even though their website says 6pm cutoff.

I asked will this all happen automatically? No, I need to call in tomorrow morning to again verify things. I said okay, this is way too complicated. Please cancel my order.

In the end I got it at a local store, and saved 22 dollars, since I didn't pay for overnight shipping. But I did waste an hour of my life messing around with Tiger Direct and Wells Fargo.

Lesson learned: Don't mess with different ship to addresses, it can be way to complicated.
posted by Bryan at 8/24/2006 04:19:00 PM

The World Community Grid is a simple idea. There are millions and millions of computers that are connected to the internet. People dont use them all the time. They walk away from them for lunch, or a meeting. They leave them connected overnight.

Why not harvest the computing power of these computers when their primary user is away. We have scientists researching some of the most important diseases on the planet, and they need to analize results on super computers. The largest super computer is the collective computing power of all the computers connected to the internet.

Sign up and join our small team today: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=5XXWK8SQQ1
posted by Bryan at 7/26/2006 09:33:00 AM

I have to say that the Amerisuites in Glenn Allen Virginia, has to be one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed in. Now I wouldn't complain if I was just crashing here for one night, maybe two, but a whole week? And for 79.00 per night with my corporate discount? Let me walk you through the appauling things I've found so far.

1) The air conditioner at the end of the hall where I'm located hums, and I can hear it through my room.
2) The air conditioner in my own room makes a low constant hum that is loud!!! But not loud enough to drown out the one in the hallway.
3) To help put me to sleep the bathtub faucet leaks in a slow constant trickle.
4) They must have ran out of fitted sheets, and I get a non-fitted one to cover my mattress.
5) The work out gym, has a treadmill, but it requires a password, which no one seems to know, nor care that it is locked.
6) They have eco-friendly signs in three places in my room, on ways they are helping to save the environment by not washing the sheets and towels. Yet, the water leaks. The soap I took a shower and barely got the little symbol worn off of it was replaced with a fresh sealed bar, same with the shampoo.

The only plus side that I've found is that I get two free bottles of water every day. Usually most hotels just give them to you on check-in. Of course in this 5 story, probably 200+ room hotel, 2 bottles of water really helps the environment out again.

Bottom line, overall, I'm not impressed, and I hope I never have to stay in Amerisuites again. Cheers.
posted by Bryan at 5/23/2006 12:15:00 AM

It is weird visiting a new place, you see things you wouldn't normally think about. Things that have been done to suit the typical environment in which people live.

In England the cars are small, because the streets are narrow, and gas prices are high.

In Austin, Texas, the houses here have no basements, their furnaces are upstairs, since they mostly run air conditioning, and cold air sinks. They usually have no gutters on their roofs, unless its a fancy shaped roof, because it rains very rarely. They have sprinkler systems in their yards, because it never freezes.

I dont understand though how Texas has all this room, yet each subdivision has houses literally 10 feet away from each other. They all have fenced in back yards, and virtually no trees.

If I was going to live in Texas I'd want a nice little distance from my neighbors. Perhaps its because they dont want a huge sprinkler system.

Either way, when you travel check those things out, its interesting to see how different places affect the simple things that you may be used to at home.
posted by Bryan at 3/23/2006 09:41:00 AM

Bums... People that beg on the street for money. You dont really know what their situation is, why they are standing there with their little cardboard signs. We have lived in several major cities all around the USA. They are everywhere.

They do seem to multiply more though in the south. We're in Austin, TX now, and they are at every major intersection that has a little concrete path in the middle of the roads. I was sitting at a light this morning waiting, and two bums were talking to each other. One had a zima, or some drink that they would sip from when there were no cars waiting for them to haggle.

I know that people can fall on hard times, but I just picture these people sitting in high school classrooms daydreaming about their futures. Thinking they will be astronauts, or nurses, or whatever. And here they are 20 years later, in their ratty clothes, begging on the streets for money.

Why do I not give them money? Unless their sign can explain a really good reason why, or they convince me they are trying to not be able to do this anymore, I just wonder why I should waste my money, on someone who may just use it to get high, drunk, or laid.

Anyway, that is my random thought for the day. Enjoy.
posted by Bryan at 3/15/2006 12:28:00 PM

Austin, Texas. What is so great about Austin, Texas. It is longhorn country. It is the capital of Texas. It has as many churches as it does bars. It appears to be completely under construction. It seems a little larger than good ol' Rochester, but really just about the same. At least Atlanta had everything you could want to do. Austin seems to cater to the young college folks.

Everything is brown, except those people that water far too often. You see palm trees growing along the walk, along with cactus as well. In March it can be 85 degrees one day, and 64 the next. There always seems to be a constant small breeze though.

We're getting used to it down here, but overall, I miss the cold. So I'd rather say I like things a little smaller, I like things a little closer together. So I guess the saying is true? Go big, or go home? I'd rather be going home.
posted by Bryan at 3/14/2006 03:27:00 PM