Advance in Civilization

When every aspect of life seems to be in decline, one is especially watchful for signs of progress. And today I found it!

The Garden Inn Hotel in Singapore has a wonderful guest service— a set of washer/ dryers that allow guests to do their much-needed laundry at a charge much cheaper than $12 per shirt. So I gathered my laundry and all the change I had to discover two fabulous innovations:

1)   Instead of plucking coins into the machine and hoping I had the right number, another machine to the side had a way to insert one bill and receive one token. The token starts the washer and/or dryer. Brilliant! 

2)   But yet more brilliant was the soap. Instead of having to buy a big box and use just a little or travel with a small bag of detergent or get change to buy a little box from yet another machine, the washing machine was designed so that you didn’t have to add soap. The machine itself did it internally, all for the price of that token.

Remarkable!!! Why didn’t we think of that in our public laundromats? It’s like someone finally figuring out to put wheels on suitcases.

So, my friends, there is some hope after all that civilization can still advance. Soon no one will be able to remember those little boxes of soap in the laundromat.