Before we get started, I want to make sure not to leave you with the impression that I’m the sort of person who actually maintains things well. My garage is home to a number of machines that, if properly taken care of over the years, would probably still work.
But, since I depend on computers for my job, my part-time teaching, and my writing, I have learned the basics on how to take care of my computers and keep them running reasonably well.
Unfortunately, there are times when weeks go by when I don’t sit down at our home computer, since I usually bring my lap-top computer home with me. So, when I do turn on our old reliable machine, I usually take the time to do some tidying up.
One of the things that helps a computer run a little better is called “defragmenting” the hard drive, or “defragging” it. The best way to explain it would be to compare a fragmented computer hard drive to a library where the books are placed in a number of rooms, and in no particular order. If you needed to find information in a bunch of those books, you could do it, but it would take a long time, and you’d be warn out from searching all over.
The computer can become like that library, and the hard drive can spend a lot of time and effort going from room to room looking for the information you want. Defragmenting the hard drive puts the information into better order, making your computer more efficient.
I was thinking, as the computer was straightening itself out, that it would be great if we could defrag our brains. If the information about where my keys are could be right next to the information about where my wallet is, maybe I would operate better. If I could isolate the jokes into one part of my brain, and put the useful parts closer to the front, perhaps my tendency to say inappropriate, but humorous things would be deterred.
Not only that, but maybe if the information up there in my cerebellum were more orderly, there’d be room for more stuff. Even if I could just move the thousand or so song lyrics over to the side, that would free up space for learning Spanish, or figuring out just one Sudoku before I die.
On the other hand, sometimes wandering around the library is the most gratifying thing of all – especially when you find something unexpected that interests you. I guess most of my time is spent thinking thoughts that way, as my brain wanders around itself, wondering if an interesting thought will be found. Here’s one: what if we could defragment our heads?
