Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Fortune Cookie precise

I broke open the fortune cookie and read the note inside. Immediately I realized that was written by a meteorologist.

"You will be contacted in the late afternoon by a pink polka-dot octopus ..."

He continued, on the other side: "... and asked to provide details of your application for a permit mulching yellow cloud."

Two things struck me about this particular fortune. The first is that they have come a long way in their ability to predict exactly what will happen and when, just as the weather. This is undoubtedly due to recent technological developments. Laser technology, for example. Nano technology. Robotics. Bioengineering. And many other specialized fields have been developed for precision spot unimaginable just a generation makes.

It is not only the meteorologists.

In London, Ontario, specialists perform microscopic cardiac surgery on patients miles away using a robot named CSTAR (you can not simply wait for new parents to start their children's names after the famous surgeon, CSTAR?). This opened the door to many benefits, such as sending robots to remote locations without worrying about a surgeon replacing organs wrong because of jet lag.

But the real advantage was revealed when a surgeon confided in me: "You know the world is a better place when we do not have to scrub our hands before surgery anymore."

Can I call someone in North America on the phone and respond in real time. Not only is a better answer I can give people face-to-face, telephone cables but my call to the exact person I want, saving the other 400 million telephone subscribers, the inconvenience of having to say "Wrong number.. . again! "Only a few decades ago, Suzie manual switchboard and connecting them all.

"Janice Land? No problem. You connect." CLICK.

"No, wait. I wanted to speak with Janet Lam. Hello?"

My father can find the exact amount of sugar in the blood he packs in his veins. Not long ago, people could not care less what was in their blood sugar as long as they had plenty of it in their double fudge cups.

Yes, technology has come a long way, allowing us to send and receive very specific information in detail and in large volumes, thus exciting innovations of the 21st century as spam (I know, I know, the great innovators spam you most admire have done their heroic acts of the 20th century, but has not seen nothing yet!)

Despite the volume of information I received in my inbox, there is a very worrying for all of this free additional information, which brings me to the second thing that struck me on my message to Fortune Cookie.

It 'was wrong.

I waited all day for the pink polka-dot octopus to approach me, and never did. Just because modern technology can offer enormous volumes of detailed information to the laser, it makes that information valuable or even accurate.

Which brings me to the revelation that a meteorologist is now writing fortune cookies. Weather forecasts have become increasingly accurate. For example, I was told that today will be hail in the city just east of here and be alone in the city west of here.

Once upon a time, the forecast would be simply "Sun and hail should pass through the region." Less precise and less evil. Just as useless, though.

Maybe we should take CSTAR to make fortune cookies. CSTAR certainly would issue fortunes that are not only precise but also accurate, right? As bonus, the pastry should not stain your hands before cooking.

It should not have to wait for a pink polka-dot octopus all afternoon.

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