I was walking along this morning, completely lost in some sort of pointless thought experiment.

I say "thought experiment" because I don't really know what I was thinking about. But, whatever it was, it had my attention.

It became obvious to what extent my brain was in orbit when I tried to open a regular old door (the kind you find in buildings) with the remote keyless entry control for my car.

Walking along, I pointed the remote at the door and hit the "unlock" button.

Nothing happened. I pressed the button a couple more times.

I swore, wondered what was wrong with the world, and then realized that it was still 2003, and that it definitely wasn't the kind of 2003 that Arthur C. Clark would have dreamt up.

The natural thing to do in a case like this, I believe, is to feel stupid.

However, this whole incident didn't make me feel stupid at all. On the contrary, it made me feel that the door was stupid.