Did anyone else here see Wall*E, the movie? I went along with the kids and aside from some nice animation was rather unenthralled by it. However, one of the main themes in the movie is how humans become reliant upon machines and/or computers to do all this work for them resulting in lazy, overweight, non-thinking humans. I was reminded of this while reading this story. Losing a child has to be a scary situation but I’m waiting for this kind of use of technology to become a crutch for parents who just don’t want to take the time to know what their offspring are up to. It comes down to personal responsibility – on both parts – the kids for their actions and the parents for being parents. Having a GPS trackable watch is great for when your kid is lost at the mall or, heaven forbid, is abducted but when it’s 10 o’clock at night and your child is not home on a school night – maybe you should *know* and not have to rely on this watch. Yes, teenagers push the limits and will probably sneak out (although, try sneaking out of the Castle Gormogon…go ahead…I dare you – I will warn you, I’ve seen the ‘Puter in the woods around the moat).

Taking this one step further, what if we substitute “government” for “machines and/or computers”? Is that where we’re heading in this country? In essence, that is the thrust behind the Libertarian Paternalism movement – individuals either can’t, won’t or don’t make the “right” decisions, so government is here to help nudge them in the right way. Be forewarned – it could be in our future.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.