It's a Physical Limit

It was 2.30am, way past my bedtime. Neuron-firing rate dropped to 4 Hz. Brainwave pattern was transiting into the theta phase. High level of adenosine was detected. I tried to ignore the signs but the warning message flashing on the terminal distracted me from what I was working on.

Standing on the balls of the feet, I reached at the tallest part of the bookshelf. There it was, a thick tome with a woven binding, covered under a thick layer of dust collected over years of disuse. Blowing off the dust jacket off the cover revealed the title "A User Guide to the Human Body (5th Edition)".

I skimmed down the table of contents, stopping at the section "Your Brain: That Chunk of Stuff in between Your Ears". Flipping to the listed page showed the technical specifications of the brain.

• Weight: Approximately two pounds
• Size: Varies across individuals; ranges from something between the size of a peanut or a football
• Number of neurons: Something between a hundred and a hundred billion
• Temperature for optimum performance: 37゜C

These were but just a few selected points. The number of bolts and nuts required to build a brain from scratch was written in detail too, among other trivial stuff.

Nope. These were not what I was looking for. I needed to check the section on troubleshooting.

Q: I'm supposed to sleep two hours ago but I need to stay awake and finish some work first. There's this warning message flashing since an hour ago. I've been trying to ignore it but it's distracting. What should I do? Should I just smash the terminal?
A: Check your EEG, if it falls below 8Hz, go to bed already for the love of God. Forcing yourself to stay awake may undermine the hardware performance of your brain, or even cause the brain to switch to zombie mode Now, if that does not frighten you enough, please be informed that the warranty shall become void should the hardware be run beyond the recommended conditions (refer to section 42.18.2.1.6).

See? Staying awake overnight was not as simple as a matter of will. It was a physical limit. And heck, I was compromising my warranty thanks to some sadistic guy who gave us an assignment which was to be submitted the next morning, by 10.

What the hell? Why 10am? Why not 5pm? I didn't have the first lesson in the morning. And why not just next Monday? This wasn't any assignment you could finish in minutes by enlisting the help your fingers and toes to do the arithmetics. These were the calculations for the designs of a hydraulic jack, the very beginning part of our project for the next six weeks. Obviously, we were screwed. And this was just the prelude to a worse nightmare that is to come.

Just a little bit more. Damn. I hate "Machine Design and Drawing".