This is an interesting idea: a McLuhanesque unintended outcome of the information economy where widgets and robots do all the work. We are getting dulled by it all. Time was when the leisure society was the promise. A three day work week for a 1968 lifestyle. We were all to be driving off to go camping, all in out station wagons filled with waving happy kids dreaming of eating bacon. But no, we weren't allowed that. So here we are:
Boring jobs turn our mind to autopilot, say scientists - and it means we can seriously mess up some simple tasks. Monotonous duties switch our brain to "rest mode", whether we like it or not, the researchers report in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.Rest mode. Is that what you call it? How to deal with this? First, reject rest mode and actively day dream. Start with the smell of bacon and go from there. Second, refuse to put on the device. The egg heads in white lab coats say: ""We might be able to build a device (that could be placed) on the heads of people that makes these easy decisions." Not on my head, buddy. Third, speak pig latin in the work place. Mumble it to yourself if you have to. A nation of mumbling pig latin desk jockeys is better than rest mode. Fourth, get rid of your pants and get some slacks. People in the 60s all wore slacks and they were much happier. Rest mode might be a reaction to a non-elastic waist band. Think about it.
Comments
David Janes - April 24, 2008 9:42 AM
I'd just like to say that after the last 24 hours of "interesting" work, I could beat these scientists to death with a shovel and go enjoy an Egg McMuffin afterwards without a worry on my mind.
Alan - April 24, 2008 10:01 AM
But you, if I recall, are a slacks clothes horse.
Hans - April 24, 2008 10:24 AM
Pass me a sabot please.
Chris Taylor - April 24, 2008 11:56 AM
Mmmmmm bacon.
There's a pretty simple solution staring these guys in the face. Why waste time trying to keep a human alert doing boring, repetivie things? If a task is boring and repetitive, automate it entirely. Eliminate the human from the decision-tree framework. Let them concentrate on the non-boring creative work while our machine serfs handle the drudgery.
Chris Taylor - April 24, 2008 4:42 PM
"oat Noriega"
I submit this product for your consideration, as a vegetarian-safe bacony remedy for those whose who cannot have the real deal due to reasons theological, personal or dietetic.
Alan - April 24, 2008 4:46 PM
You failed to highlight Operation Bacon Salt which is clearly a rip-off of my own Project Borscht to Iraq of a few years ago.
Chris Taylor - April 24, 2008 5:53 PM
A worthy cause, although borscht just doesn't have the glamour of the bacon lobby. I'm trying to remember a time in my life when I craved beetroot soup for breakfast, and I'm coming up blank.