[coldtea]

>I always figured it's just a force of habit, but they're doing it in maximum power-save mode, and are way past giving a fuck about how gross it looks to everyone around them.

That's the other thing about it, when it was being done in the past: people weren't so appealed by having bodies, or frightened of life and anything that's not sterile.

So they weren't as grossed out by everything - including a person merely licking their fingers to count some pages or notes...