I've been thinking lately, do we rely on machines so much that it makes life meaningless?
At work, I run a lottery syndicate. Each fortnight, people hand me $5 entry and I buy a heap of tickets and see if we all win. I have detailed spreadsheets that keep track of the cash flow, the tickets that give us the highest probability of winning, and whether out tickets win. It's all very efficient and accurate. I don't even need to pick the ticket numbers myself! All I need to do is mark who's paid and write an e-mail to them giving them our numbers.
I'm starting to wonder if I've got it all wrong.
I thought the whole idea of things like lottery was to be a fun game of chance wth cash prizes. Instead I've turned it into a mechanical money-sucking process, at least as far as my work is considered. The entrants probably get more joy out of it, receiving numbers thast they can check on Saturday night. Incidently, it took over nine months to win anything.
I thought about my rune work and how I would never let machines be involved in anything I do seriously. They show results. I put in the personal effort and give it all of myself. The effort is rewarded.
I think this goes with everything we do: using calculators for simple problems that we know we could solve if we just focused for a second; pitch-moding singers voices because they can't hit the right notes; being unable to close your deceased spouse's account because the computer requires they do it in person. Have we lost the human touch? Are we too lazy to bother with any magic in our lives?
I was inspired by Killerzzz
Sing a little song thread. I thought this was a much better use of time than "post your favourite lyrics". Put in the effort, don't just cut and paste! You will feel so much better about yourself. Singing is fun, even if you do suck at it. A cut and paste job, well, we might as well just open yet another song lyrics database...
