Posthuman Blues

I saw my first Segway today. The "driver" was talking on his telephone as he crossed the street, for all the world like some crude automaton. I hope Segways don't proliferate like cellphones; I don't need another essentially pointless technology to add to my list of urban annoyances. (Having said that, I wouldn't mind having one.)

I was blasted out of sleep last night by more anomalous beeps from my phone. This happened over and over, punctuating my sleep and mildly freaking me out. The beeps came in sets of nine and, at least on one occasion, a set of three. The paranormal history of the "nine knocks" phenomenon, which I read about most recently in "The Communion Letters," comes to mind.

If this is something paranormal -- and I haven't totally eliminated the possibility, even though it sounds stupid on first blush -- then it seems oddly appropriate that I'm receiving the "signal" via an electronic device rather than hearing old-fashioned "analogue" knocks. Also, the beeping (which is recorded on my answering system) only seems to happen at night. I should check my alarm clock -- maybe it happens at 3:33 or 9:00. That would be circumstantial evidence that it's caused by something other than faulty microchips.





Occam's Razor: All things being equal, the simplest answer tends to be the right one. So in this case I'm going to chalk the beeps up to bad electronics unless I get corroborating evidence that it's something else. If this is an attempt by aliens to contact me, they need to try a bit harder. (Then again, perhaps I should be more careful what I ask for. I don't especially relish having an implant shoved up my nose.)