{"id":238,"date":"2011-09-26T19:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T19:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/?p=238"},"modified":"2011-09-26T14:00:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T14:00:28","slug":"1908","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/?p=238","title":{"rendered":"1908"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">One day in the near future, we\u2019ll all be living with sentient intelligent robots that are capable of fulfilling all our basic day to day needs. This will enable us to carry out free lives, with more free time than we know what to do with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">I will love and cherish my robot and I am going to call him 1908. I know this because 1908 came back from the future, late last night, to tell me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">You\u2019ll have to excuse some of the language in the following, it is necessarily paraphrased in parts as 1908 and I spent most of the time after he arrived last night in a massive psychoactive trance brought about by some mushrooms he found on a siding, whilst travelling between his dimension and mine.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Anyway, on to the story.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">1908 and me were going out for the night on one of the orbital stations of the moon and apparently there were a load of professional space-football players just checking in to the nearby hotel. Despite 1908 having these massive visual and sonic sensors, I spotted them first, and was giving him a right good verbal ribbing. In the future I\u2019m apparently not much of a space-football fan, and 1908 just LIVES for it &#8211; it\u2019s all he\u2019s interested in! So I spot these space-footballers (first, did I mention?), and one of them, a giant three legged toad-beast from the jungles of Arcturus, gives me a bit of a funny look.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">So I go up to him (I mean he might be a famous space-footballer but I don\u2019t care who you are &#8211; you should show a little respect?) \u2013 and I ask him if he was looking at anything in particular?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">If any of you know me, you\u2019ll know I couldn\u2019t possibly take on a normal space-toad, never mind a giant one that plays sport professionally for a living, but this bit made me laugh. Apparently ( in the future) I have genetically and bionically boosted myself to the shape and size of a male walrus \u2013 so you can imagine how terrified this poor guy was!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">But 1908 knows me better than anyone, and he knew that I was just jerking this guy\u2019s chain, having a laugh. I wouldn\u2019t start a fight with anyone, not really. I had just had a few drinks \u2013 that was all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Regardless, the team doctor comes over, and as you can imagine 1908 is literally DYING of embarrassment. But I\u2019m still laughing to myself inside, even though the doctor is an industrial medical unit and he makes even me look small. He asks me to calm down, and if there \u2018<em>is anything going on here<\/em>\u2019. I decide not to push the point, although I\u2019m tempted to keep the act going, and as I said \u2013 I\u2019ve had a few drinks \u2013 so it probably seemed funnier than it actually was.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">But I apologise to him and say <em>\u2018I\u2019ve had a few drinks and actually what I wanted was this guy\u2019s autograph\u2019<\/em> \u2013 I explain to him that I\u2019m a massive space-football fan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">1908 is stood there next to me pissing himself now, nudges me with his elbow and everything. As it happens this space-toad was the star player\u2019s wife &#8211; as I\u2019m looking at what I think is a professional sportsman, I\u2019m actually looking at the most famous WAG in the near galaxy! So she opens her mouth and this big croak comes out &#8211; my on-board neuro-translator tells me (in the most feminine voice the little piece of technology is capable of) to \u2018Eff off\u2019 and I just went bright red. Like a Betelgeuse Beetroot, apparently.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">I just about twig as this point, and I apologise AGAIN looking all sheepish now. The massive medical unit is standing there looking all condescending, tapping his right drive-actuator on the floor and glaring at me with his transponder-probes crossed. 1908 is stood there hiding his face \u2013 trying his best not to giggle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">The cheeky bastard floats away as fast as he can, leaving me stood apologising and doing my best not to look like a complete tool. Apparently I got a right cob-on then, being made to look like a prick in front of these famous types (even though it was all my doing!). That\u2019s the way it goes though sometimes, I\u2019m sure some of you will sympathise with my future self!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Next thing you know (by all accounts) I stomp off (proper childish hissy fit!), and angrily whack my giant robotic walrus tail against the space-glazing, cracking it through. Within three minutes all living creatures (including me) on the orbital station are functionally brain-dead \u2013 completely starved of oxygen \u2013 and the fusion reactor de-stabilised causing a massive implosion and a local catastrophic inversion of matter.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">To top it all off, the game went ahead (even though one side was down to a bare-bones team), it was a score draw, and 1908 went on to be the single winner in the Pools that week, scooping 19 trillion space dollars!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Can\u2019t wait until the future now, sounds like such a laugh.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One day in the near future, we\u2019ll all be living with sentient intelligent robots that are capable of fulfilling all our basic day to day needs. This will enable us to carry out free lives, with more free time than &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/?p=238\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonsense","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimandpaul.net\/selfindulgence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}