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published under CPOPL (CodeProject Open Poetic License) © copyright, 2021, assigned to CodeProject
A total dissolving of all sensation; a fade-to-a-black that swallowed all light, all sound ... my body melting away; skin, flesh, bones, blood, becoming a slurry, a whirlpool of jet-nothingness spiraling as it swirled down an invisible center.
Then ... I am in a cave on a mountainside; fierce winds make the cave howl as they pass over crevices; the howls echo in the depths of the cave. In rare moments, when the howls die down, I imagine I hear sounds of waves breaking on distant rocks.
The walls of the cave are covered in ochre handprints ... big meaty hands mixed with smaller, more delicate ones, mixed with tiny hands.
I become aware that I sit in front of a large device that reminds me of the mainframe computer in some movie I can't remember.
I mutter to myself: "no movies here," and, start laughing. My laughter is amplified as it echoes in the cave, overpowers the howling, becomes so loud the walls of the cave begin to shake.
The front of the device is now ablaze with swarms of pinpoints of light in different colors; I stare at them, entranced.
As my tsunami of sound fades, a deeper, more guttural, laughter replaces it.
There is a big hand on my shoulder: I turn around, surprised at my lack of surprise, of fear, at my sense that everything here is ... ordinary.
I turn, and look at the man connected to the hand; he is swarthy, hairy, beetle-browed, a powerful jaw in which very large teeth are exposed by his smile.
"Hello," I say, as if I just saw an old friend in line at Starbucks.
"Hello," he says, continuing his toothsome smile.
My voice ... before I can tell it what to say ... says:
"Can you tell me where ... what ... this is ?"
He replies:
"You're on the island you call Gibraltar, 42,000 years in your past ... at just the time your kind, and climate, killed the last of us."
"Are you going to kill me ?" I blurted out, surprised how matter of fact my tone was. Then, I noticed the club dangling from a strap around his waist ... a wicked looking scalloped-edged blade hafted into its end.
He laughed: "this (pointing at the blade) ... is the ultimate Mousterian blade; took us a few millennia to get that right ... that flint came from Spain ... it's worth at least three wives.
No, no point in killing you: there's enough of who we are in all those babies your kind, and mine, made ... to ensure our survival.
... And, you have a job to do."
"What job ?" I asked ... aware, now, that the shadow of some kind of scene-change was creeping up on me, of a stage backdrop being slowly lowered, of blacked-out stage hands sneaking on to the half-lit set to change the props.
The device ... no lights now ... I remembered what it was !
I was here to sample the signal density of the environment, and the device was a quantum scanner that analyzed every frequency.
I put my hands on the front of the device; they knew what to do.
As the swarm of lights became pulsing mandalas, then runes from forgotten magical grimoires, then cuneiform slashes, then pictographs, then icons, then words from every modern language, then alternating angry, sad, happy, emoticons ...
I dissolved, again.
The alarm clock was chiming, and beginning to play my morning concert of baroque music. The little apartment was shaking slightly as the trucks rumbled past.
My wrist-watch showed I had slept fitfully, with a few bursts of rapid heartbeat co-incident with REM sleep cycles.
The half-deaf neighbor had, as usual, turned up the morning news again so loud I could hear it.
Through the walls I heard vague, distorted, morsels of the usual CNN apocalyptic litany of ... climate change, pollution, wildfires, floods ...
I sorted through the usual robo-calls, checked the spam folder for accidental mis-fires.
The words "signal density" came to my mind, accompanied by an image of a scalloped Mousterian blade rotating in space ... a spotlight highlighting the precision geometry of its edges.
"nothing Mousterian 'round here," I mumbled to myself, as I headed to the kitchen to check the IOT connected coffee-maker.
[
descriptions of Neanderthal culture are extrapolated from current academic research, as well as transformed by imagination. debate on the presence, and extent, of Neanderthal trading networks, is an active topic based on new archaeological evidence, with hypotheses about homo sapiens vs. Neanderthal participation.
I know of no evidence for any trade goods on the sites in Gibraltar where it is possible the last of the Neanderthals survived.
]
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Hi Ron, Thanks for that compliment !
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Couldn’t sleep???
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Another story inspired by true event happen to me just a few mere hours ago...
Having a nap, I dream I was next Sunday playing the tabletop RPG campaign we are doing, with some of the same question I must prepared popping into my mind... Then I woke up and was confused whether it was Sunday already or not for a little while... 
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Wonderful Bill.
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
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There is no cure for stupid. Well, there is, but...
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Take off the warning labels and let things work themselves out ...
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I wouldn't call it a cure, but instead the end condition for using those medications. Means the person using it won't have to worry about Covid anymore. Or anything else.
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Actually, that might not be a bad idea - the gene pool may need some drainage 
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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Is that not the idea behind Covid/Great Reset?
Not that I disapprove as long as it's not me quite yet.
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Seriously?
I was going to say who would be that stupid...but never mind!
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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We know several veterinarians who know medicines which would benefit people. It's only the creationists who think that people are "better" than the rest of the animals. We're really not
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Quote: We know several veterinarians who know medicines which would benefit people
Granted, but to take something designed to deworm cattle for a human virus defies logic!
Quote: It's only the creationists who think that people are "better" than the rest of the animals
We may not be "better" than animals, but we are different. I don't understand what "creationists" has to do with the argument? 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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The universe IT is creating a better idiot.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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If a giant fly attacks a police station, should you call the SWAT team?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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A giant fly?
No, that movie is too old.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Call Spider man, or a frog man, or the lizard king.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Just have them RAID the critter.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I am exploring the purchase of a Chrome book (or equivalent) for email, web browsing, notes and other light tasks during long travels. Anyone have any thoughts on these? I know they generally need a continuous internet connection, and do not have much storage (ram and ssd), but I think I can upgrade those from my junk drawer stock.
It looks like I can develop Android apps (Xamarin?), which could be useful.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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For the limited uses that you mentioned, they are very good. I don't know if I'd want to use them as a development platform, however. Even if they can run today's IDEs (which I haven't checked), I think you might find them a little underpowered.
If you have a decent cellphone data package, you can keep them connected anywhere by using your cellphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. That's what I do (with my PC laptop) when travelling.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I do the same with my Surface. Works well!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I was planning on development with VS2019 using the Xamarin projects.
My only concern is if I have to go through the app store to get privately developed apps, used by only me, onto the chrome book.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, navigate a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects! - Lazarus Long
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