Normal is what normal is, not what people want.
Normal is a number. Not a social statement.
Normal is a calculation.
Normal is what normal is, not what people want. Not what used to be. Not what we always had. Normal drifts. Normal shifts. Normal spins off in its own direction, because normal is numbers, and numbers are what numbers are, and normal is what normal is now.
When a computer is available for $5, and software for it is available for free, and the software and the hardware are several times more powerful than was necessary to send a spacecraft to the moon and back, normal is what normal is now.
When a car is going down the highway, and the car steers itself back into its lane and slows down slightly to maintain proper interval with the truck ahead because the driver is reading a stock tip an artificial intelligence stock broker just sent, normal is what normal is now.
When a high school class can create a project using a satellite purchased online, using funds from a disparate group of strangers they have never met, with no contributions larger than a couple hundred dollars, normal is what normal is now.
When “over-the-counter” cold medicine is sold from behind the counter, because an average person could use it to make a drug that people will kill for, normal is what normal is now.
When a couple have a child born prematurely — so prematurely that it would have been considered a miscarriage in the early 20th Century — and post pictures of that child entering third grade years later, normal is what normal is now.
When a child gets a $68 Christmas gift, registers as an unmanned vehicle pilot, and does it in five minutes using her phone, normal is what normal is now.
When a news article is read three times because the reader can’t figure out if the article is satire or just a local reporter stating the facts, normal is what normal is now.
When a Socialist runs for president and is considered a mainstream candidate, normal is what normal is now.
When a Fascist runs for president and is considered a mainstream candidate, normal is what normal is now.
When you hear “a nice newlywed couple with no kids” has moved in next door, and you have no clue from that statement what the genders of the couple might be, normal is what normal is now.
When you hear “a nice middle aged couple with two teenage kids” has moved in next door, and you have no clue from that statement what the genders of the couple may be, normal is what normal is now.
When a domestic terrorist shooting is replaced as the leading news by another domestic terrorist shooting, normal is what normal is now.
When domestic terrorist shootings statistics are lost in the noise of daily shooting statistics, normal is what normal is now.
When the terms “book” and “movie” and “TV show” mean different — really different — things depending on the speaker and context, normal is what normal is now.
When an electric utility, using wind technology that that was considered fringe a decade ago and a pipe dream a decade before that, produces so much electricity that power is free to its customers during nighttime hours, normal is what normal is now.
When someone sitting at home, using something that looks like a prop from a 1960s science fiction movie, taps a finger, and someone on the other side of the world reads his thoughts ten seconds later, normal is what normal is now.
