So, one of the best parts of being a wizard like me is raising the dead. Specifically broken old machines. I inherited an old Mac that I recently brought back from the brink of a dumpster somewhere. It was an older junk box that its previous owner became locked out of one day, and all efforts to restore access proved more work than it was worth as the machine was extra anyway. A work station for a grandson to do some online schooling, but he had since received a much more updated rig.

Having outlived it’s usefulness, and now rendered inaccessible by a password lock no one can recall having set up, it was left to me, the family member with a reputation for black magic and tech-romancy.

I’m not a Mac guy. Not usually, anyway. PC is my main, Linux a frequent tangent I’ve dabbled in to the point of being quite comfortable. But Mac? That’s still some foreign territory. I have had some experience, again from my time with an inherited Mac book that was similarly saved from obsolescence by my crafty wizardry. However it still remains my least tinkered platform.

The “new” Mac has something the old one didn’t. Bluetooth. It takes up very little space, and connects to several devices I already own, so I’m turning it into a code station/jukebox. Why not, right?

I still have so much tech in boxes to get to, but I don’t know if I dare get it all out and up. It’s a bit of an overwhelming sight to the uninitiated in the household, and I’m sure I’ll get inquiries as to why the lights dim when I wake up in the morning if I set it all up like I had it before I moved.

I do miss having a code editor in nearly every corner in case something good comes to mind, but I have come to rely on my mobile device for that. My productivity has seen a decline as of this past summer.

Recently, I was informed of an interesting theory regarding the human race’s place in the universe that I found interesting. We are reproductive organs for robots. Now, before you call the men in white coats to issue my regular dose of Thorazine, hear me out. Humans are poorly designed for space exploration, but here on Earth, we are industrious little monsters. Planets exist too distant to send any being to and have them reach it and report back in their own lifetime. So, either these voyages become generation spanning missions, OR we continue on our current track of hurling scrap metal and radios into the void and let them report back to our descendants.

I kinda like that idea. Though it is with some faults. First, space is REALLY hard on machines. If this theory were to hold water, the tech still has a long way to advance before we have real potential for the things we toss off-world to survive deep space. Which one was it I read about recently that flew past Pluto? Voyager, or something? Recently left our solar system. Or at least, what we perceive as the totality of our system. That’s another thing. We aren’t fully sure what’s out there. Could be an undiscovered planet yet at the far reaches of our own system still to be found. Who knows?

Anyway, radiation from space is brutal. Circuits we develop need lots of shielding. Plus, without atmosphere to evenly distribute the hot and cold of something warmed by a star, the temperature difference on the sunny side and the shaded side of a thing can be kinda severe. And dust! You think it’s bad on Earth, imagine if it just doesn’t fall, because of the lack of gravity, and it’s free to float around everywhere. You still need to vent the heat from your systems without letting it in though. It gets complicated.

So if we are robot genitals, we are witnessing the early evolution of what will be the true space-faring race from Earth, in the form of pocket calculators and smartphones, and PCs that can send information to each other all across the planet. But they are far from ready to reach for the stars, save but a few primitive over-engineered exceptions. The invading force is still generations away, I’m sure.

Good to know the robots will still need us for a little while longer.