Can You Turn Your Brain Off?

I wish I had the ability to "turn off" my brain like my daughter.  Here is the story on how I discovered how she turns her brain off.

I picked Meredith up from swim practice and she was very excited to tell me that she was able to hold her breath for a whole length of the pool for the first time.  Her Dad, being a former swimmer, taught her some techniques to help her accomplish this goal.  On the way home, she said, "It's really easy if you just put your mind to it...Actually, you just turn your mind off."

Of course I then had to ask her if Merebith went to sleep when she turned her mind off.  Meredith said that actually, Merebith is given a tranquilizer to make her faint.  For Dogot, she presses his reset button because he'll be out of it for awhile.  I asked Meredith who was the one to give Merebith the tranquilizer shot.  She she that it was one of the "hands" with the Mickey Mouse gloves on it.  Meredith explained that basically she controls these mechanical hands when she needs to do something to Merebith or Dogot.  Ah, now I remember.  She talked about a hand coming out to tickle Merebith to give her the feeling of guilt.  This is one of the many mechanical hands that she uses in her mind.

Back to tranquilizing Merebith...  Meredith said that she laughs at Merebith when she is sleeping after being shot with the tranquilizer because she mumbles things like, "Dogot...Dogot, don't touch...the computer," and "What...should..I wear?"

Dogot, on the other hand, mumbles other words while he is sleeping: "Bark...bark...bark."  I don't mean bark like "ruff, ruff," I mean he actually says the word, "bark," because as you know, he is a robot after all.

Guilt is a Tickle

Meredith was looking at the blog the other day and I was explaining about my post Conscience Visualized. After telling me that the picture on the post looked a lot like Merebith, she quickly corrected me and said, "Mom, that's not how my conscience works." Here it comes...I knew I was about to get schooled again in how her mind works. As with many things, it's easier for Meredith to draw me a picture than to explain it in words.  Here is what she drew:

The basic gist is that when there is a decision to be made where her conscience needs to be involved, she goes to a machine (first picture) and presses either the "yes" or the "no" button. The machine transmits the signal to "Nerd," the ugly guy on the other machine (second picture). Based on which button she pushed, a green or a red light will flash for Nerd to see. If the red light flashes, then Nerd makes a big, mechanical arm come out to tickle Merebith (third picture), which gives Meredith the feeling of guilt.

Meredith said that Merebith lives a very complicated life--a very mechanical life. Wait until you learn about all of the different machines Merebith uses. I'll dedicate another post to all the machines she's told me about, but one example that I love is the empathy machine.

The empathy machine is shaped like a shoe. When Meredith wants to "get in someone else's shoes," Merebith steps onto the machine, types in the name of a person whose shoes Meredith wants to get in, and then in a Star Trek-manner, once Merebith steps in the tube she transforms into that person and can feel their feelings.  You can see how she tried to draw Merebith transforming into another person.  There was more to the story about how the information got stored and transmitted but I can't remember it all (e.g., the text that got cut off on the bottom right reads, "Idea Storage Tank").  The empathy machine is my favorite machine to date.  Don't you just love that Merebith steps into a literal shoe?!?