I know that this may seem somehow weird but I would like to have some Cyborg abilities. Just to mention a few I would love to have a tool installed in my brain which helps me to find a word in a document immediately like the shortcut Ctrl/F is doing. The shortcut Shift/F7 ; finding synonyms for a word (aka Thesaurus), would also be helpful.
But even if this very small list could be extended, I think that the best of all would be to have a kind of Ecs or Exit key. Whenever I am working on the computer and something goes wrong, my fingers are finding their way to the Escape key. This moment of relief when I discover that everything is just as before and that my doing has not caused any problems, is so… relieving.
There are moments in life when such a key would do wonders, wars and misery could be avoided and a lot of shameful situations titled with the thought: “What the h*** have I done?”
This is a kind of digital version of what I had in mind when I was a child.
That, of course, was in the overwhelmingly analog world of the late 20th century (let’s say: 1980s) with its – listen up – music cassettes. Wohoo. Yeah. I am that age. Music cassettes. You remember those plastic boxes, size of a cigarette package. No, of course, you don’t remember. And if you read this, say, beyond the year 2012, you won’t know what a cigarette package is. So, alright: If you are born after 1985, please skip this comment, turn up your iPod and listen to “Call on me”, of which you think it was a great idea by some guy called Eric Prydz.
Anyway, I thought about a “rewind” button in life. Any time anything goes wrong, you have the option to just rewind life a few seconds, minutes or even hours, and start off again. Kicked in the glass entry door with your football? No problem, rewind and shoot the neighbour’s car. Broke your favorite toy truck by tossing it in rage against the living room wall? Rewind and calm down. Called your uncle “schwul” (gay) because you thought you had just invented a cool word and didn’t know anything about the real meaning? Bad idea. Rewind. Shut up. Cool feature. Sometimes, I still miss it.
*eject*
I never thought about that tool but I have to admit that the time between discovering music cassettes and the arrival of CDs was pretty short for me.
But I thought about some other tools like the third and forth arm, coming out of you just when you need them.
Also nice, the “Delete” button for unwanted memories even if some people seem to possess this one already, especially after long alcohol dominated parties.