I'm at a conference, I explained, in San Diego. Many of the greatest minds in my business of technology examination are here debating the future interactions between people and their machines. We saw demonstrations of armies of tiny military robots. And examined a future where mobile phones might be used to call an up to the minute minute protest.

She whistled, in her way, signalling interest but ignorance. Maybe I'll have a chance to tell her more about it. But when I hung up the phone, all I could think about was finding a place to crash. The conversations are stimulating and happening in hallways and online during seminars while people are talking, there's an IRC channel and Flickr and so I found myself slinking from session to session sitting in the back, wherever there was a power outlet, charging my devices and steadily losing my stamina. I couldn't see the powerpoint up in front. I couldn't always hear the speakers. I wasn't engaged in what was happening, and the power outlets and chat rooms were somehow sapping my attention.

So I crashed. I passed out hard. After two nights of in-bed-by-midnight and at least seven hours of sleep. Sure it was a different room each night. And sure I don't know where I'm sleeping tonight. But I ate breakfast every day. Took vitamins. Lived a healthy vagabond. And so I was wondering - where did my energy go?

Sleeping was like rebooting and I realized after nap-granted clarity that at least sitting up at the front of the room would better feed my mind. I have plenty to consider about the nature of the information saturated knowledge gathering. I can do it from the front row, where the remarks better wrap around me, even if I am doing ten things at once.