Energize Me

Why are batteries still so terrible?. There will be no grand philosophical argument veiled with humour about how batteries are representative of "the man".  Today, I will just talk about batteries and their inability to light up what will certainly be a very dim future. 

I was about to watch some Netflix one weekday afternoon (as all career oriented people do) when I realized that the batteries in the Wiimote had died yet again. About four times a month I go through the process of swapping out old dead batteries for fresh new ones. Certainly the types of batteries I buy are the cheap ones but even the best quality ones don't work much longer. Rechargeable batteries are worse because they give you the illusion that they will last a long time. Realistically, the first three charges give you decent energy output but after that, they die a quick, bloated, corrosive death. 

Laptop batteries are probably the best and longest lasting batteries yet most of these "superior batteries" can only power a portable PC for just over an hour. When Laptops came out for sale about 20 years ago their big claim to fame was that you could take them anywhere. Sure you can, as long as wherever you go has an A/C outlet or you have an adapter in your car. I tried thinking of something that has been as widely used as batteries that has had little advancement over the years and all that I could think of was the Microwave. Yet even the microwave solved most of its problems with the addition of the rotating plate and the creation of those little silver pockets that you put things in to crisp them. 

Batteries have been around commonly since the early 1800's and it has been rumored that the ancient Egyptians also had several inventions that were battery like in nature. With all of this time using batteries why haven't we come up with one that lets you use the flash on your digital camera and take more than six pictures before the images start getting dark and fuzzy? There are about 7,000 laptop-like batteries in a Tesla roadster and they have a top estimated distance of 100 miles before they crap out, I guess that trip to the Grand Canyon is cancelled.

Over the last 20 years our world has become mobile. Most of us don't even have a land line anymore and yet while we keep churning out electronic devices and ways to communicate from afar we have not increased these devices abilities to stay powered. Certainly there are a few exceptions of devices who have upped their battery game but the final result is still no where near ideal. If we are headed to a fully electric future battery power is going to play a big role in that equation. If we don't start investing time and energy into charging our tomorrow then we should prepare for another Dark Age.

The Power Of Laziness

Laziness is the mother of all invention. There is nothing in our lives that is necessary. we don't know why we are here or what we are supposed to be doing. Everything that happens occurs because of  presumption and inflated sense of self importance. Certainly things like food and shelter seem like necessities but if humans have no apparent purpose then our necessity to live is purely self created. 

People don't go to work everyday because it gives them a sense of importance, they do it for the money. Certainly there are a few lucky people out there who are able to enjoy their jobs and feel like they are contributing to the world but I am speaking generally about the masses. What do people do with their money after they have paid their bills? They go on vacation. Every moment that is not spent working is spent on leisure time or resting for the next work day. What do people do when they are rich? They don't work or, they invest all their time into a blowhardy passion project that no one else cares about. Most of our working lives are spent conspiring about how we can stop working or creating devices that do the work for us.

In the beginning there was man (okay, I guess there were probably some women there too). Man did everything because of instinct. He was totally connected to his surroundings. One day while he was tracking a wild beast for 15 miles his brain had an independent thought "goddamn my feet are tired." This made him have another thought: "There has got to be an easier way to get my hands on some wild beast meat." From this point on he started obsessing about different scenarios in order to catch prey. 

Fast forward through the generations: 


"Goddamn I hate walking"= Planes, trains automoblies


"Godamn I hate eating janky smoked meat in the summer" = the refrigerator


"Goddamn I hate getting up to change the channels"= remote control


"Goddamn I hate walking over to someone's house just to talk to them"= telephone.

Inside every hard working man or woman there is a lazy person trying to get out. Every great leap in technology is the result of someone who didn't want to work. If everyone did their job 100% of the time like they claim, a thought would never be wasted on anything besides the task at hand. There would never be an idle conversation, an anecdote or dirty joke. No blushing parent would talk about their babies first steps and no one would be consoled about their mothers leukemia. Idle times are moments when we are at rest, when we are human. 


We have this grand idea that if we are working, we are by virtue of the task more important than someone who is not working. But busy work just for the illusion of importance is not important at all. Laziness on the other hand is pure potential waiting to explode. Our greatest realizations come when are minds are free and our minds are free when we are not working.