I was 17 and just learning what high fidelity was what good sound was and learning the mechanics of tape machines. It was a real education going right from the consumer end to the record factory.

I have no idea how to get in touch with anyone anymore. Everyone it seems has a home phone a cell phone a regular e-mail account a Facebook account a Twitter account and a Web site. Some of them also have a Google Voice number. There are the sentimental few who still have fax machines.

It was one of those great miracles of history that they managed to smuggle an Enigma machines out to Britain just before they were invaded by the Nazis.

'Robopocalypse' explores the intertwined fates of regular people who face a future filled with murderous machines. It follows them as humanity foments the robot uprising fails to recognize the coming storm and then is rocked to the core by methodical crippling attacks.

As the earth spins through space a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food productive machines doctors engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.

That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.

We all have our time machines. Some take us back they're called memories. Some take us forward they're called dreams.

I had been impressed by the fact that biological systems were based on molecular machines and that we were learning to design and build these sorts of things.

Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them.

But I was very very lucky and it was a wake up call as far as motorbikes are concerned. I never flirted with death on the bike but now I'm totally convinced they're death machines.