Ugh, my head.

I've been in a bizarre mental place, recently. I'm not sure what it is, I can't even really characterize it, other than being unfamiliar territory. It may in part be the rain, or any number of things.

Ray Kurzweil's talk didn't really help much. He naturally expounded his grandiose vision of the future, applying exponential growth curves to anything and everything, predicting such things as covering the planet in solar panels to power our perfectly efficient energy-recycling nanocomputers. (The heat generated in one cycle is reabsorbed and used to power the next cycle. Maybe I slept through one too many frosh chem lectures, but, er, what?) Perfect, internal virtual reality worlds that are just as engaging and thorough as the real world, with less limitation. Programmable synthetic immune systems. No mention - at least not until questioned - of the possible negative consequences of these things. I think that bothered me somewhat more strongly than it really should have, but it still bothered me.

I think I'm genuinely scared of the future right now. I really think that might be it. If it is, it's something I've never wanted to be, and in fact been fairly proud of not being. I want to make it stop, right now.

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