One of the nice things about this time of year is that I can be seen looking though the action figures in the toy asile and not feel embarassed.

I've been asked to issue a moratorium on writing about robots and I'm happy to oblige.

For those of you keeping track, the roommates passed like trains in the night. Well, trains in the night that shared a U-Haul truck. And not really the night so much as mid-day -- but who's counting?

So far, I gotta say, things are good. The conversation has been excellent (not that it wasn't before, just different) and I now realize how essential a kitchen table is to making a home feel like the sort of place where you'd actually want to take in a meal.

Meanwhile, I've got a pile of soiled clothes that could pass for an Indian burial mound, not enough quarters to make a dent in it, and a thick coat of dust on everything that I own. So what does it all mean?

Hard to say. But that old longing to break free is cropping up again. Funny, because as of today I've lived in this place longer than I've lived in any other place since I first moved away to go to college. Don't get me wrong; I'm happy about that. This is where I want to be living, but is this how I want to be living?

I think it may be time to think about reinventing myself again, but first I have to get around to doing my dirty laundry.

Y'all are probably growing tired of this wave of pro-singularity propaganda that I've been posting recently, but I've got to say that the rewards are pretty good; since I've started writing about it, my secondary hard-drive (dubbed "OuterRim") has miraculously improved to breakneck speeds and my formerly-tinny Logitech speakers have started cranking out exceptionally warm midtones.

Contrast this with my roomate, who is now very much in the last throes of his occupancy. As you may recall, he dissed the ability of machines to reason with human-level sophistication. Well, his computer exploded the other day in protest. I'm not even kidding.

Coincidence? Probably.

I know that ASIMO is really not much more intelligent than that R2-D2 toy that I used to have follow me around. But check out the videos of him on the official US Honda ASIMO page and tell me that it is not uncannily close to passing for human.

At this rate, imagine what kind of commands he will be able to carry out for you within ten years. For example:

Me: ASIMO, do my laundry.

ASIMO: I would like to do your laundry, Ray, but your change jar only has six quarters and the laundry machines require nine.

Me: ASIMO, go get the quarters from the change compartment in my car.

ASIMO: I will go get the quarters from the change compartment in your car, Ray.

Later...

ASIMO: I am here with the quarters from the change compartment in your car, Ray.

Me: Thanks, ASIMO. Now do my laundry.

ASIMO: I will go do your laundry, Ray.

Do you see what I mean? Even if the first generation of robots are idiots, life gets better for everyone. And when they can think at human levels of intelligence, no one will ever have to work anymore. And then when they can think above human-level, we will sit back and watch as wealth reaches unimaginable levels and its distribution becomes perfectly equal.

That will free up plenty of time to make preparations.

A few days ago, a girl died after receiving a kiss from her boyfriend, who had just eaten some kind of peanut butter snack. (Some sources report it as a peanut butter sandwich)

I have always been worried that this would happen.

Next up: artificial muscles.

Elsewhere, my roommate (in the last throws of his occupancy, by the way) says that robots will never "take over" or anything because they will always lack the human spark, the soul, the will and desire to create and innovate. He says computers are always bound by rules while humans are not.

I countered: what is DNA-based genetics but a set of rules? A system of "on" or "off" binary switches -- and yet the whole blueprint of the human experience is contained within. Once we understand those rules, could we not program a machine to duplicate them?

No, he says, not enough random mutation, which is needed to keep things changing. Without it, robots would not adapt to environmental changes. But I've had data that have suddenly corrupted like some mutating, irradiated genes.

This was on the way to Wendy's, by the way. The TV told us to go there, and I had a Spicy Chicken Sandwhich.