The Inventor of the Inventors

Saturday, 3-2-19

I have a new phone finally, and you know what my favorite feature is? It doesn’t embed shards of glass in my skin. Also, it’s coral, which is fun. I was going to get yellow because they were out of coral, but it took us so long to untangle the issues that I got a coral one in the end.

The phone also has this feature called Face ID. It recognizes my face, so I don’t have to put a code into it to unlock it.

I was thinking about how cool that was one day. Then, I thought, why is that so cool? Humans all do that. I can recognize faces, too, not just one, but a lot. I’m never confused when Marnell comes home about whether he is my husband or not.

One day at work I had a cold so I wore a mask to keep myself from coughing on my patient.

My phone did not know who I was.

So all day long, to access my phone, I either had to put my code in or lift my mask.

That’s a bit of an outrage, I thought.

Now, it isn’t that I can’t empathize with my phone’s problem. I understand the difficulty. When I worked in heart surgery, I had to recognize people with masks on, and it can be tricky. Thankfully, the surgeon is easily recognizable by the light on his head. You wouldn’t want to get him wrong, that’s for sure.

Probably, the phone company could teach my phone to recognize me with a mask on, if they put in a special piece of that magical stuff called “code”. Technology is really amazing these days.

But my point is, none of the operating room nurses pulled me aside and typed new code into my head. No one said, “Katrina, these people have masks on, but they are the same people that you saw out in the hallway. You just need to focus on their eyes, and you’ll be able to identify them.”

Nope. I knew intuitively that they were the same people, and that I would have to learn how to recognize them without their whole face.

For all the years of human ingenuity and research and development and creativity and brilliance, my brain is still better than the software in that phone. So is yours. The old words are just as true now as they were when they were written: we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

The software tech who unveils a brilliant new design is more brilliant than his design. The CEO’s of the Silicon Valley, where we were a few weeks ago, are more incredible masterpieces than their products. The airport employees at the great San Francisco airport–never mind, that is another story. Check back on next week’s blog!

They are more brilliant than their inventions because they have an even more brilliant Inventor. The Inventor of the inventors is more incredible than His creations, and always will be.

P.S. I’m hoping to share another Merchant post on Monday, once again about a business in the house on Laurel Street. Those are some pretty talented women over there, that’s all I can say!