It's a great piece of literature, Brave New World. I wonder if Huxley's prose can be reproduced by a non-human source in the not too distant future. He would surely be horrified to see reality surpassing even his dark dystopia, and I think it will. After all, programmers have already bragged that robotic journalists will begin snagging Pulitzer prizes as early as 2016. Is it such a stretch of the imagination to have similar and more advanced software win literary prizes thereafter? Computin

"Ground control to Major Tom!"... I really enjoyed the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Ben Stiller. This was the scene where Mitty's colleagues mocked him with the David Bowie song as he stood transfixed at the coffee machine, staring after the girl of his dreams. He didn't snap out of this chronic habit of his until he was plunged into the frigid waters of Iceland, confronted by a shark. If that didn't wake him up nothing would. There's small difference between zoning-out and being