It's Electric
Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc, knocking out power to 2.3 million homes across Houston. Fast forward to day seven, and 600,000 homes were still in darkness, with the only illumination coming from the red faces of hot, angry customers. The rage directed at Centerpoint, the electricity infrastructure company, was so intense you could light a home for week with it. And apparently it was on day 5 that neighbors, in unison, decided food in their warm fridges had lost the good fight and dark invectives were shared as they made trip after trip between fridge and trashcan. Those curses aimed squarely at the heavily air conditioned Centerpoint executives many miles away.
It was hard not to pass some of that animosity on to the linemen in the streets, bravely cutting away trees, dismantling broken poles, and swapping out transformers. These hardworking individuals became the unwitting targets of ceaseless questions from well-meaning but increasingly desperate citizens. Everyone hoped for a shred of good news, some inkling of when they could return to abusing their thermostats.
The linemen’s responses were often as dependable as the weather forecast that started it all. They didn’t have the big picture and the timelines they gave were sometimes wildly off the mark. False hope traveled house to house like lice after an 8 year old girl’s slumber party. The linemen pushed on, ignored the glares, repaired the lines and quickly learned that “as fast as we can” least provocative answer they could give.
Too Much AI Liberty
A friend, Gregg R., suggested the cartoon idea but it was going to be complex to draw. After a few false starts I asked DALL-E how she might draw it. It was great! So I traced parts of it, ok, most of it and added my robot flair. I did give her second author billing because it was MY idea. Is this the beginning of the Singularity where artist (sic) and technology become one? Nah, just textual borrowing.