A THOUGHT FROM THE FUTURE


It was 3:28 AM when Melvin’s brain groggly became active. He was bothered by a very bad cold that prevented comfortable sleep. He thought it was strange that in the year 2049 Scientists had finally developed ways to prevent the majority of diseases that plagued the human race but they had not been able to eliminate the common cold virus. The lowly cold had never left mankind. And that was the ailment that was bothering Melvin. It was the most sever cold he had ever had. No amount of medicine made the blocked sinus passage clear up or the aching in his head to leave him.


But all the physical unpleasantness of the cold was not what was bothering Melvin. It was the thought that he lovely family in Mossyrock, Washington was suffering with the same ailment. Why should it be that both Melvin and his family should suffer from the same ailment at the same time? The similarity of the aliment and its timing was obvious to Melvin because he and his family spend a lot of time on the Wireless Communication System. The symptoms had developed simultaneously between Melvin and his family over the last couple of days. Why should that be?
Melvin thought he would get on line with his family and discuss this strange phenomena with them. But first Breakfast.


Melvin went to the kitchen where he placed his finger on the Kitchen Key Pad and thought of scrambled eggs and bacon. Almost immediately the food storage unit opened and a mechanical arm reached in and gently picked up two eggs and placed them on the counter. The arm then reached back into the food storage unit and picked up three slabs of bacon and placed them on to a hot plate on the electronic cooking unit. In just a minute or two the bacon started to sizzle. Melvin knew the fragrance of cooking bacon was filling the air. Unfortunately his blocked nose did not allow him to smell the desirable scent as it raised up from the bacon sizzling on the hot pad.


The mechanical arm then cracked the two eggs into a bowl and beat them until they were fluffy. The arm then deposited the yellow fluff on the hot pad next to the bacon.


The Key Pad was placed on the market several years ago. The engineers at Compudyne had developed a Key Pad that could read the mind of anyone who touched it. The Key Pad replaced the old style keyboard that was connected to the electronics of the house. No longer did Melvin have to type in what he wanted the house to do. All he had to do was touch the Key Pad and think what he wanted the house to do. The Pad read his mind and things got done.
Within minutes Melvin’s kitchen served his breakfast on a plate on the table.


One of the symptoms of this terrible ailment was a closed nose. The blockage was so sever that swallowing was almost impossible. Melvin had to develop a new way to swallow with his mouth open. Swallowing with his mouth closed popped his ear drums. Thank goodness for Melvin’s taste buds. Even thought swallowing was difficult the eggs and bacon tasted delicious.
Melvin touched the kitchen pad and thought the dishes into the dish washer. He though of a shower and the shower turned on and the temperature was adjusted to Melvin’s thoughts.
Melvin stepped into he shower and was immediately drenched with warm water. The temperature was to his liking as he had mentally controlled it by touching one of the Compudyne key pads in the house. An instant later he was sprayed with soap suds. The soap had been developed several years ago. It contained micro scrubbing bubbles that gently scrubbed his body. Melvin laid his chin on the shaving control pad. An arm holding a safety razor moved out of the wall and gently removed all of Melvin’s whiskers. A quick rinsing and drying and Melvin was ready to face the day. Although facing the day with his terrible cold was not a pleasant thing.


Along with the pain in his head, the blocked nose and the cough in his chest he noticed that his right index finger felt funny. He looked at his finger thinking that he might have a splinter in it but could not find anything. Oh well it was not much of a bother until he placed it on the Compudyne computer key pad. That’s when his finger felt most like it had a splinter.
Melvin has some business to attend to that would keep him busy for most of the morning. He thought that he might contact his family after lunch.

Melvin dressed and moved to he easy chair. He brought out his brand spanking new Compudyne Computer Key Pad and placed his finger on it. The Compudyne Computer Key Pad was a tremendous step forward in computer technology. The Computer was no more that an inch long by half inch wide and about a half inch thick. It was attached to the Key Pad. The whole thing slipped on the index finger. The Computer generated a 10 by 14 holograph display screen. Even in the brightest of rooms the display screen was easily read.


He thought of his Holograph Computer Screen. An instant later it was up and in front of him. He mentally adjusted its size and location.


He thought the words of several letters and then sent them over the World Wide Wireless Network to the recipients. He did some mental bookkeeping and played a game or two and then it was time to contact his family.


Melvin placed his finger in the Compudyne Computer Key Pad and thought his family’s address. In an instance he found their blog. It told him what he had already knew.
They were still suffering from their illness. They had placed the following message using their new Compudyne Computer Key Pad:

“The last four days have been some of the strangest ever for this Zwick Family.It all started with a call from a realtor on Thursday morning wanting to show our house on Saturday at 2pm. This in-and-of-itself isn't all that strange, although it does tend to send our household into an extended, unusual frenzy. For two-and-a-half days we dropped everything else we had planned and went to plan B: shooing away large dust bunnies, stuffing closets with things that wouldn't normally go into closets, making fourteen dogs disappear, etc.But the surreal part of the past four days is that most of the members of our family of nine have been hit hard with the most unpleasant bug I think we have ever had in our home. (Certainly according to Lydia, this is the worst sickness she has EVER had!) It has driven our usual energetic, hard-working children straight to bed . . . for days. Each child has been hit with varying degrees of discomforts and tiredness, but for the most part, it has really wiped everyone out. It is as if our little world here in our neck-of-the-woods has stopped for a time!And the house has been eerily quiet.

Melvin sent them a quick note describing his condition. In it he commented how strange it was to have the illness occurred simultaneously between them. Without giving it much though he mentioned the feeling of a splinter in his index finger.
Then it was off for more work. Later in the day Melvin thought of his family again and found they had answered his thoughts.

"It is strange that we all have the same illness at the same time. The illness is contagious so we can understand why we all have it but it is weird that you should have it at the same time. Maybe the cold virus has traveled over the wireless network just like a computer virus. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our symptoms are the same as yours. A blocked nose, headache and a hacking cough. It is strange that we have noticed that our computer finger also feels like there is a splinter in it. Strange very strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Love"

Melvin didn’t give the finger thing much though. The blocked nose and the headache made it difficult to concentrate. In fact Melvin had a difficult time getting a lunch. It seemed that his thought process was somewhat confused and the poor Electrical Kitchen was having a difficult time getting the correct things for his sandwich.

Later in the day Melvin’s brain seemed to clear up a bit. He found it easier to maintain a thought process. He started thinking about what his family had jokingly said about a cold virus being sent over the Wireless Network just like a computer virus.

He though it was a rather stupid thought but it would not leave him. What the heck. Why not contact Compudyne and ask them if they had heard of such an outlandish thing as a cold virus being sent over the Wireless Network.

Melvin slipped on his “Compudyne Computer Key Pad and thought of Compudyne and the virus question. He immediately made contact with Compudyne and moved to their, “Contact us” page. The computer would not accept a question about cold viruses. Melvin would type in, “Are any of your customers complaining about a terrible cold virus?” Just as Melvin was ready to send the message it would disappear from the Holograph Screen. It was almost as if the Computer did not want to send a message about a cold virus to Compudyne.

Melvin decided to take another tact. He went into the back room where his old computer was. It was the old style with a regular keyboard and computer screen. He dusted it off and fired it up. Melvin wondered how people accepted the slowness of this old workhorse when compared to the new Compudyne Computer Key Pad.

Melvin’s attempt to contact Compudyne was handled without incident. It was a little difficult remembering how to type. He went to their “contact us” page and wrote them the following:

“This is a dumb question but I feel obliged to ask. Are any of your customers experiencing a terrible cold?”

Several times during the day he put on his Compudyne Computer Key Pad and searched for an answer from Compudyne. None existed. On a lark Melvin went back to the old workhorse computer and looked for a response from Compudyne. And there it was.

“We are investigating why many of our Compudyne Computer Key Pad customers are experienced a sever cold. It seem everyone using our Key Pad have blocked noses, sever head ache and a hacking cough. All are complaining about the feeling of a splinter in their index finger. We have found that the Key Pad has developed a wire that is sticking up into the finger area of the key pad. We have not been able to prove it yet but we suspect that the Compudyne Computer has caused the Key Pad to grow the wire that is sticking our customers in the finger and passing on the cold virus. It is recommended that you no longer use our Computer Key Pad until we can solve the possible problem.
To add to our suspicions our Computer Key Pad would not send out a message about a cold virus. Every time we wrote a message about a cold virus our computer screen would go blank. We had to go back to our old computer system to get this message out to our Compudyne Computer Key Pad System.
Thanks for you patience. Compudyne”

How scary is that? Ever since computers could talk to each other they have been capable of passing on viruses to each other. And now we find that computers might be capable of passing on cold viruses to their human operators. Was the Compudyne Computer Key Pad smart enough to protect itself and not pass on the question of a possible cold virus being passed on by itself? The thought is a chilling one.
And so its back to the old key board and computer system which we will have to use until Compudyne determines how to give their Computer Key Pad an inoculation to wipe out its cold virus.
Within days Melvin and his family were back to their old selves.