ひとheaterperson

What's the worst that can happen if we run out of oil and we have an economic collapse? Some envision a scenario where the term "personal heater" will have an entirely new meaning. Let me explain...

These prophets of the apocalypse predict that eventually human labor will become cheaper than any fuel source or electricity and that the rich will begin to hire people to act as heaters for their homes. That's right, in this Matrix-esque distopian future, people will be valued in BTUs.

You can picture it now: a dozen people assigned to each room of a house to keep it warm with their combined body heat. These people would be seen as nothing more than food-to-heat conversion machines, trading the output of their digestive process for the input required to keep it running.

Just imagine what it would look like: a room lit only by sunlight; a wealthy man sitting in his chair gazing out a window; dozens of people inconspicuously doing jumping jacks along the walls of the room. At night the person heaters walk to the bedroom single file and lie down along the walls to go to sleep (after all, they will still produce heat while they sleep).

If these prophets are right, perhaps we should get used to the term "person heater" instead of "personal heater".

jekor
2009-05-22