Monday monday

Monday again, and the week stands before me like a huge blank canvas. The trouble is I seem to have lost my brushes.

The weekend was ok, and my son came down to attend a friend's birthday celebrations. As a result, both friday and saturday turned into quite long and heavy drinking sessions, and I think that this week will be a drying out time. I don't think I could become an alcoholic, I feel so bad after a couple of hard nights, that right now the thought of a drink has no appeal at all. However, there is time for all that to change I suppose.

I was reading this morning of a wedding in Korea that ostensibly was conducted by a robot. At first glance the idea seemed gimicky and silly, but then why not? The majority of people in the west, have no religious faith and many weddings are conducted in registry offices by clerks who chant secular version of the religious mumbo jumbo associated with the church wedding. It's just words in the end and although there is a huge amount of sentiment attached to it, a wedding is just a convenient type of tax dodge.

There was a time when a marriage was a permanent arrangement, but now they tend to be short lived, with neither partner trusting the other totally, to the extent that financially each partner remains separate. Prenuptual arrangements make splits far simpler and in reality there seems little point to the arrangement, and less meaning to the ceremony.

So why not a robot? It could go a stage further I guess, and have the ability to conduct a divorce ceremony too. Maybe each robotic marriage printout should contain a voucher for a discount on the inevitable. I can see a future where such coin operated robots will wander the streets seeking out trade and will offer meaningless pledges and platitudes in all languages. At least then I suppose relationships will be more honest, even if they are more ephemeral.