Postscript
When You Don't Have to Lift a Finger
Scientific innovation for the most part has been the result of man's/woman's insatiable desire to explore new ways to make life more comfortable and convenient. The invention of all those household appliances, for instance, has certainly made day-to-day living exponentially easier. It has given us control over boring chores like washing and drying clothes without giving two hoots about the weather or bird droppings on the clothes line. Some inventions have made unnecessary socializing avoidable while allowing other types of communication to be faster and bolder.
The flipside of such conveniences however, is that it has also made people lazier than they would otherwise have been.
There is no denying the fact that the more modern and richer we become, the less likelihood of our engaging in physical labour. Hence all those diseases associated with too many calories stuck in our immobile bodies – diabetes, heart disease, muscle atrophy, sciatica, spinal weakness and so on.
Our sedentary lifestyles ensure that we are constantly in a sitting position for most of the 24 hours allotted to us, the rest being covered by lying on the couch or bed. Computers, androids and the Internet make sure that we do not have to even walk to a colleague's desk to ask him how he is after falling off the chair while snoozing at his desk. We can just 'Whatsapp' him. The remote control has made us forget what it was like to go all the way to the TV set, turn it on and change the channels by painfully twirling the tuning buttons with our bare fingers. People who have remote controlled air-conditioners, fans, lights, sound systems and perhaps even coffee machines seem to have the life – all they need to do is somehow move their bodies to the bedroom and bathroom. Most likely they will have enough mobile household help to take care of all their other needs.
Fortunately or unfortunately, you can be lazy even if you don't have a lot of money and without any scientific innovation.
Jaywalkers, whether they are rich or poor and although they are nice enough to walk to their destinations, would rather risk life and limb than take the footbridge to cross the streets because it's just too much trouble. They will even contort their bodies to incredible positions, to go over the barbed wire on a road island.
Shopkeepers would rather keep a grungy rag at hand so that they can wipe the dust off of only the items the customer will buy and place at the counter rather than keep all their inventory clean. Book stores are notorious for this kind of laziness as the store-keepers/owners just can't be bothered to remove the months of dust that have accumulated and that the hapless booklover must encounter.
Teenagers, as parents keep complaining, are incorrigibly lazy. They are too lazy to fold their clothes, remove wet towels from the bathroom, to brush their hair if not going out with friends, sometimes to have a bath because it requires moving from their favourite spot on the bed and being separated from their laptop/earphones/TV/cell phone. Funnily enough, these same individuals will stay awake at all hours of the night just so they can chat with their best friend in Alaska and will become squeaky clean before a possible encounter with the opposite sex – at the mall, coaching class or mandatory hangout session.
Coming back to scientific innovation, scientists, to take this laziness even further, have now invented Wi-Fi enabled window shades. Designed by SONTE, a California based start up company, the film that is attached to windows can turn them from being transparent to opaque or dark. Thus there is no need to go all the way to the windows to draw the curtains. The innovation they say will save energy, provide UV protection and can even control the heat that enters the house, thus saving heating bills (for countries that experience harsh winters). What's more, it allows the windows to double up as a video projector screen.
So there you have it. The ultimate fantasy of all those lazy bones who would like to live their life just lying in bed for as long as possible.
Just make sure your teenager doesn't get whiff of it.
Our sedentary lifestyles ensure that we are constantly in a sitting position for most of the 24 hours allotted to us, the rest being covered by lying on the couch or bed. Computers, androids and the Internet make sure that we do not have to even walk to a colleague's desk to ask him how he is after falling off the chair while snoozing at his desk. We can just 'Whatsapp' him. The remote control has made us forget what it was like to go all the way to the TV set, turn it on and change the channels by painfully twirling the tuning buttons with our bare fingers. People who have remote controlled air-conditioners, fans, lights, sound systems and perhaps even coffee machines seem to have the life – all they need to do is somehow move their bodies to the bedroom and bathroom. Most likely they will have enough mobile household help to take care of all their other needs.
Fortunately or unfortunately, you can be lazy even if you don't have a lot of money and without any scientific innovation.
Jaywalkers, whether they are rich or poor and although they are nice enough to walk to their destinations, would rather risk life and limb than take the footbridge to cross the streets because it's just too much trouble. They will even contort their bodies to incredible positions, to go over the barbed wire on a road island.
Shopkeepers would rather keep a grungy rag at hand so that they can wipe the dust off of only the items the customer will buy and place at the counter rather than keep all their inventory clean. Book stores are notorious for this kind of laziness as the store-keepers/owners just can't be bothered to remove the months of dust that have accumulated and that the hapless booklover must encounter.
Teenagers, as parents keep complaining, are incorrigibly lazy. They are too lazy to fold their clothes, remove wet towels from the bathroom, to brush their hair if not going out with friends, sometimes to have a bath because it requires moving from their favourite spot on the bed and being separated from their laptop/earphones/TV/cell phone. Funnily enough, these same individuals will stay awake at all hours of the night just so they can chat with their best friend in Alaska and will become squeaky clean before a possible encounter with the opposite sex – at the mall, coaching class or mandatory hangout session.
Coming back to scientific innovation, scientists, to take this laziness even further, have now invented Wi-Fi enabled window shades. Designed by SONTE, a California based start up company, the film that is attached to windows can turn them from being transparent to opaque or dark. Thus there is no need to go all the way to the windows to draw the curtains. The innovation they say will save energy, provide UV protection and can even control the heat that enters the house, thus saving heating bills (for countries that experience harsh winters). What's more, it allows the windows to double up as a video projector screen.
So there you have it. The ultimate fantasy of all those lazy bones who would like to live their life just lying in bed for as long as possible.
Just make sure your teenager doesn't get whiff of it.
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