Certainly -- I'm always happy to add to the general mayhem level.
Of course, since writing it up, I've been reworking the metaphor in my head, continuing to stretch things to the breaking point and beyond in the name of stricter accuracy.
Y'see, the *real* situation is that we've been wiring the limbs with loads of little nerves running directly from the brain. That worked for a while, but it's been turning into a nuisance. So about a week ago, I said, "Hey -- we've got this wonderful Autonomic Nervous System wired through the spine! Why don't I just use that instead?" So I got the guy building those autonomic systems to ready it for higher brain functions.
Well, on Monday I went to hook the cerebral cortex up to the spine. To test the results, I severed all those individual little nerves, and figured I'd try testing its responses. So I put the Monster's hand on a hot surface, and sure enough -- it jerked away. Okay, so I was reasonably confident that things were working right.
So I come in Tuesday morning and start building the Monster. When I'm done, I try one of our basic tests -- I wave at it, and it's supposed to wave back. Instead, it just stares at me dumbly. I poke and prod at it, and it falls flat on its back on the floor and doesn't move. No matter how much I wave in its face, it refuses to even acknowledge me.
We went in, and eventually figured out that the spinal cord hadn't been wired quite right, and was still rejecting all higher brain functions. After some investigation, I found out that my test Monday evening was invalid. Turns out that the guy building the arms decided that it takes way too long to get responses back from the brain, so he wired the nerves in the arms so that, when they feel something hot, they go, "Ack! Fire!" and jerk away, regardless of everything else. Who knew? You'd think someone would tell the brain about things like this.
Believe it or not, that's an extremely precise analogy for the bug I was responsible for. Still, the image of the Monster looking like a dying goldfish is a bit too funny to pass up...
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Of course, since writing it up, I've been reworking the metaphor in my head, continuing to stretch things to the breaking point and beyond in the name of stricter accuracy.
Y'see, the *real* situation is that we've been wiring the limbs with loads of little nerves running directly from the brain. That worked for a while, but it's been turning into a nuisance. So about a week ago, I said, "Hey -- we've got this wonderful Autonomic Nervous System wired through the spine! Why don't I just use that instead?" So I got the guy building those autonomic systems to ready it for higher brain functions.
Well, on Monday I went to hook the cerebral cortex up to the spine. To test the results, I severed all those individual little nerves, and figured I'd try testing its responses. So I put the Monster's hand on a hot surface, and sure enough -- it jerked away. Okay, so I was reasonably confident that things were working right.
So I come in Tuesday morning and start building the Monster. When I'm done, I try one of our basic tests -- I wave at it, and it's supposed to wave back. Instead, it just stares at me dumbly. I poke and prod at it, and it falls flat on its back on the floor and doesn't move. No matter how much I wave in its face, it refuses to even acknowledge me.
We went in, and eventually figured out that the spinal cord hadn't been wired quite right, and was still rejecting all higher brain functions. After some investigation, I found out that my test Monday evening was invalid. Turns out that the guy building the arms decided that it takes way too long to get responses back from the brain, so he wired the nerves in the arms so that, when they feel something hot, they go, "Ack! Fire!" and jerk away, regardless of everything else. Who knew? You'd think someone would tell the brain about things like this.
Believe it or not, that's an extremely precise analogy for the bug I was responsible for. Still, the image of the Monster looking like a dying goldfish is a bit too funny to pass up...