generator

It has been busy lately.

I met an inventor at the bar last night and he had an idea that he said would change the world. It worked on a small scale, he said. All he needed was funding and he could implement it everywhere. It was a generator that worked on human power. All you needed was to wear this little bracelet on your wrist and you, along with everyone you met, became a massive power grid. It made you a little more tired at the end of the day, a little hungrier, in need of a little more sleep--but it would solve all our energy problems forever. Only about three-quarters of the population would need to wear them in order to generate enough, too. What is going to bed exhausted at night, he asked me, if it means we have real progress?

I was skeptical. I asked him about his business model. Would the bracelets be free? Why would anyone want to wear one, when he could just take his off and let the rest of the world shoulder the burden? And with each question he just kept saying it would work, it would fix everything. I grew agitated and told him that's not how people work. People only care about themselves. They'll drag the rest of us down with them if it means they can go to bed a little later. Eventually he paid his tab and left, looking despondent, telling me I was probably right.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the world does work right sometimes. Maybe I'm just afraid to dream.