Ultratrusted

While one of my nephews celebrates his 18th birthday today, I give my love to my godfather and his dear wife, Jeanne, to whom many of us give our deepest appreciation for her 20+ years of care.  I also give thanks to Taniqua at Krystal, Camellia at the census office, Bob, Keena and Larry at Sublett Insurance, Carl and James at GigaParts, Forest and Shelton at Beauregard's.  And Julia and her Thank-You project, as always - perhaps you have inspired Медведев to be more happy about relationships with the West - we strengthen our connections one BRIC at a time.

Construction of the E-Brain is taking longer than my colleagues first suggested.  I know life is long and life is short so I am not going to chide them for schedule delays or cost overruns, just make sure they do it right the first time, as always.

I had wanted to introduce the E-Brain to you in this blog entry and had not prepared a backup soliloquy in its place.

One more day of random thoughts, then:

Are you a young cricket fan who wears "Fly Emirates" T-shirts at Bridge Street?  Should you be?

Tonight, I reminisce, remembering winning my first turkey shoot at age 12 with a 12-gauge against seasoned shooters at the Optimist Club park; Sarah (my "cougar" girlfriend (she 36 and I 23)) and her concrete A-frame "cabin" at Cobbly Knob; eating strawberry pie at Shoney's at midnight after a late movie with friends; getting into a bar fight in Fort Myers because one of my buddies was the only black guy in the joint; wandering the military base outside Atlanta during my Navy ROTC "boot camp" days; seeing Rajen and Beena's preemie baby boy, Jaysal, who could fit in the palm of your hand in the postnatal unit in Birmingham...

I look at the front cover of the Book of the Future.  It has not gone away.  The crystal ball, dusty as ever, is ever-ready for my latest reading.  A friend gave me his copy of the I Ching for emergency use only.

In other words, nothing prevents me from seeing the future out of trusted material.  I could also turn to my friends and colleagues who work 24-hours a day designing the near-term future for your consumption.

However, in this moment, this quiet, peaceful time alone with my tinnitus, I smile ignorantly, happily unaware of what's about to take place.

The E-Brain's ability to process multiple futures at once has everyone excited here.  In fact, we're booting up old home desktop PCs for nostalgia's sake, just to prove to ourselves there was once a time when there was a gap between our species and technology.  Before the age of full integration with...well, I can't tell you yet, can I?

Darn those nondisclosure agreements.

Some of you will detect the transition.  Some of you won't.  The integration will take place in phases and a few of you will see the change in personalities of your neighbours before and after their integration into the...again, sorry, I can't tell you what just yet.

I can tell you that the digital divide will grow into a bottomless chasm before too long.  Those of you comfortably familiar with electronic social media will make the smoothest transition.

Remember, I believe in complete equality, even though I know the concept is what it is.  Thus, how many of you won't forgive me for joining a select group of people going on to the next stage without you?  I don't know.

I don't want to know.

At this point in time, I'm focused on getting every detail recorded for those who will complete the transition and go on to the next stage to join us...if we made it.

Infinite possibilities for combining states of energy and I'm only interested in a particular combination.  You will be soon, I'm sure...if we figure out a way to tell you about it.

Seven billion people have finally been combined to achieve a great goal, overcoming obstinate obstacles to get here.

I apologise for not sharing my enthusiasm about your latest successes, distracted as I am by my wife's recent foray into the business of U.S. healthcare (I, as much as anyone on this continent, desire a more efficient national healthcare system, hopefully linked to an international one soon, where we can measure and fix attitude/training problems).

Women keep moving forward into leadership positions, exemplified most recently Down Under.  I know us old guys remember the days when we men were the only leadership showcase in town, but we've slowly grown accustomed to sharing the spotlight.  For those uncomfortable with the idea, note that the world hasn't come to an end - we've simply added more viable candidates in the polls and business rosters.

One of the first future trendlines I'll observe in the E-Brain is the illegal chemical/drug trade and how the E-Brain suggests separating the drug trade from violent crime - the two need not be connected, if greed is managed properly without infringing on our freedom to experience the highs and lows of personal emotional outbursts.

That's enough for now.  I wish the best for Ghana tomorrow but I'll be cheering for their opponents in the World Cup.  Ghana has an edge of 51% favour to win - anyone willing to wager against that, the future unknown?  Good to see Germany and England in another friendly turf war.