I recently watched a hilarious send up of the classic Star Trek episode – “Spock’s Brain”. In the episode, a stagnated alien culture run by a failing super-computer sends a temporarily intelligence-boosted young woman onto the Enterprise to steal a replacement brain to fix said computer – from Mr. Spock, of course.
She’s confronted, but by this point her intelligence boost has vastly worn off. She angrily yells at the crew, “Brain! Brain! What is brain?”
It’s a terrible episode, but hilarious.
It reminds me of my own brain problems – or rather, my car’s brain.
I was getting ready to go somewhere and noted the tire low air pressure light was on – but the normal warning screen wasn’t on the dash panel. I did a quick check and noticed that the miles per gallon estimate and the fuel range were missing as well. And also, most importantly, the odometer.
My car’s brain is kinda broke.
This happened once before and it took quite a bit of work to convince the dealership what was going on. It finally got through to them when they tried to check the mileage. Yeah, that’s what’s broke, guys, that’s why I’m here. They didn’t really fix it, but managed to “reboot” the car and get it working – though they warned that if it happened again, they would likely have to replace the panel at $400+
I dropped it off at the dealership tonight and as I was getting it checked in – to be worked on tomorrow – they again tried to get the mileage. And I even told the guy that it was the odometer that was missing. Creatures of habit, I guess.
The service agent (or whatever his title is) took a look at the history and had good news for me. Since I first had this problem, they’ve come out with a update/fix for the issue. Instead of a new part, it’s basically a firmware update that can be done along with the diagnostic fee. Still going to cost me a $100 for that – but better than $400. And I don’t know the ramifications of driving without a working odometer – but I do know that I’d quickly lose track of when I need to get my oil changed.
So, hopefully, this will be the fix and I’ll be able to pick up my car tomorrow evening with an updated brain.
Oh, and it case you were wondering, Dr. McCoy did eventually get his intelligence briefly boosted too and with Spock’s help – long story – they got Spock’s brain back in own head.