July 12, 2007
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energon for humans
In transformers the major characters would consume these glowing cubes called “energon” which gives them the energy to face their enemies and makes them and their weapons more powerful. Energon is the most important force in the transformers universe and is the primary determinant of which side wins and which side loses in the great battle between autobots and decepticons.
We have something that serves a very similar function for we mere humans. It’s called caffeine. It comes in the form of tea, soda, coffee and energy drinks. And its pretty sick stuff. Especially the energy drinks and coffee. Both of which you consume pretty much just for the energy and not very much for any sense of refreshment or for the taste. And they are both big business. Sometimes it is even hard to navigate the great maze of how many different forms of these liquids out there there are to choose from.
I just could never get into coffee. It’s too much work. You gotta buy a special device to make and filters for it, it and you gotta add cream or milk or sugar, not too much and not too little to get it just to the point where you can enjoy it. What a pain in the butt. Usually when I drink coffee then it is premade from some store that specializes in it or I just drink it black. And I don’t like it in either case.
Energy drinks I have generally avoided, but I have experimented with them a little. They are really powerful and they really mess me up I think. I mean drinking like 3 quarters of an 8 ounce can throws my whole rhythm up. Sure I feel no need to sleep all night as a result, but still part of me feels tired. I can feel my mind working, fully active, but not working at 100% and degrading in functioning rapidly. I don’t get tireder just dumber. It feels pretty unpleasant to me. Worse is the next day when I find myself exhausted at the oddest times, like at 3 PM or something when I am usually pretty wide awake. I guess that’s pretty much when it starts to wear off.
But maybe that just means I need to find the right energy drink. I’ve only drank “red bull” before and that stuff is insanely expensive and really pretty must completely disgusting to me. Luckily it isn’t for the taste that anyone drinks this stuff. Still, I’d like to find one that tastes better and maybe is a little bit less effective. I don’t much like the idea of building up too much of an immunity to that level of energy augmentation too quickly. I’ve been pretty much immune to the level of caffeine in most normal sodas and teas for all my life. I mean I can’t remember pepsi or coke or even mountain dew ever keeping me awake or feeling more energized. It just doesn’t work for me. Truthfully I was pretty surprised the first time I drank an energy drink and realized that yeah this stuff really does work as advertised.
Here’s a website I found devoted to reviewing all kinds of different energy drinks. It may be interesting to those like me looking for the right drink for them:
http://energy-drink-ratings.blogspot.com/
Honestly, the whole existence of this industry completely disturbs me. The idea that we as a species should struggle so hard to find ways to deprive ourselves of sleep is sort of absurd to me. And the use of it by some sort of forces its adoption by many because of the competitive nature of our social system. If you aren’t willing and able to pull all nighters on occasion you almost can’t compete. Someone dumber and less capable than you will accomplish more just by virtue of spending 20 more hours a week working than you do.
Maybe you tell yourself that they are trading short term success for their health, but it is small consolation. There’s no evidence most of these drinks are actually at all harmful, there’s only the intuition people have that messing with their biochemistry with augmenters of any kind can’t really be an entirely good thing.
But more than that, sleeping is one of the few simple pleasures that we don’t have to work for. We are lucky to get to do it every day, it just happens, and it feels good. It refreshes our mind, makes us more comfortable, less irritable, more alert, and generally happier. Whether or not depriving yourself of a little sleep is at all physically harmful to you in the long term, it certainly doesn’t seem to me to be as pleasant a way to lead ones life.
Ah well I guess it doesn’t matter. I tell myself, just give up and drink the energon! If I don’t, I won’t be ready to face the decepticons when they show up. You know they’re drinking it.
