I Think I Got Its Attention

Dearest Rachel –

It’s been over a week since I bought that new computer to replace the one in my ‘office’ in the basement of my folks’ house. Indeed, it’s almost been a week since it arrived and I took it over to Best Buy to have an additional hard drive installed. Now, while you may not be on tenterhooks about it, I suspect you might want to know what I think of the new machine’s technical specs, particularly since it’s supposed to be designed specifically for use in AI applications, as opposed to the highly graphics-intense gaming machines I’ve been using up until now. For that matter, I’m rather curious about it’s capabilities myself, but for now, it will have to wait.

You see, for now, I’m still using that same old computer – yes, the one that’s running somewhat sluggishly, the one that prompted me to go looking for this brand spanking new model in the first place – to put together financial statements for the church and the camp. It’s the sort of work that doesn’t really require high-intensity hardware capabilities, unlike my eventual intentions to make forays into various artistic aspects of AI. And unlike those projects, this is time-sensitive material, so it takes priority over my projects, just as things have been basically since I set this ‘office’ up in the beginning, with every intention of focusing on YouTube animation, until things rather fell apart. In any event, I’ve been putting the personal projects on the back burner for one thing or another, so what’s different about this? There’s no need yet to bother getting everything torn down and built back up from scratch just for this stuff I’m currently having to work on.

But what, you might ask, about the reason I went looking for a new computer in the first place? What about all those blue screens of death – “Your computer has encountered an error and needs to close” – I would get nearly every other day, suggesting that this computer I was working with was on its last legs?

Yes, well… about that…

I’m not one to anthropomorphize inanimate objects like you would. I haven’t given my cars names, like you and your family did, since Rocinante, the old Mercedes diesel car we had when we first got married. And I certainly don’t tend to think of machines having feelings, or even sentience, the march to “strong” (and eventually “super”) AI notwithstanding. However, I can’t help but wonder if, by ordering its replacement (and writing about the process) on it, I might have gotten its attention somehow, because, after several weeks of dealing with it regularly seizing up and rebooting like it had been (both before leaving and after returning from the trip – you might have thought that having those three months to rest might have allowed it to settle down and refresh itself, but nope), it hasn’t suffered a single freeze-up since. And since it’s functioning just fine as it is – and I’m not about to use it for any high-powered applications at the moment – why not continue to work with it?

So that’s what I’m doing, honey. All I’ve done thus far with the new system is to bring it over, and accumulate a few extra accessories – such as an HDMI splitter, which will allow me to use multiple screens across the desk (once I clean it off a bit more) and a new power tower to allow me to plug in all those other accessories – so that, once this machine does finally give up the ghost, I’ll be ready to sweep it off the desk and put everything up all at once.

But until then, I’m not sure I need to be in any great rush. Even with a relatively slow computer, it’s not as if I’m in any great hurry on any given day. At the same time, I’m not really looking forward to the whole tear-down-build-up rigamarole – especially since it takes away from time that I could be spending actually on the computer. Sure, it’s a more powerful machine, and I’m curious as to what it can do, but what I’m doing right now doesn’t require that kind of power. Why drive a Ferrari down a side street, after all? If this old heap has somehow decided “oh my goodness, he’s brought in my replacement; I’d better start performing like he wants me to,” who am I to not give it a second chance?

So I’m sure I’ll eventually get the opportunity to put the new machine through its paces; and at some point, I should also take the opportunity to back up most of the data on this machine for when the time comes (although, to be fair, I’m saving most of the things I’m working on on an external hard drive these days as it is, so that may not be so much of an issue as all that). But until then, I might as well get whatever mileage I can out of this machine, especially since – for whatever reason – it’s decided to behave itself for now, much to my surprise.

In either case, though, keep an eye on me (and it, for that matter), honey, and wish us luck. We’re both going to need it, if for very different reasons.

Irony alert, honey; mere moments after posting this, you can probably guess what this machine did, for the first time in over a week; I may have jinxed myself just from telling you about this. Maybe I really ought to get on with the replacement process, after all.