to shut the stable door on Artificial Intelligence?. Reports by Byline Times suggest that there are 28 toys on Amazon and elsewhere that, have not been tested, use sexualised language and can be programmed to to replicate parents voices – surely this is bad? So not only are they destroying jobs and futures, they are also interacting negatively with our children. But the bad news does not stop there, data centres are proliferating across the country (and in America the blame for this plague is said to be accountable for the loss by Republicans), and these data centres are greedy for water and electricity and land. I have a new dishwasher after 20 years and it can be operated from my phone, presumably via a data centre – what is the fucking point, I have to load the dish washer, and switch on to enable remote access – and I can’t do this whilst standing at the machine! Too many sci-fi films?
On the radio this week they were talking about things borrowed and not returned – I would like my coffee table about the 1966 World Cup victory back please (I do not remember lending it!), and Sarah can I have my weather book back please!
Todays program was about annoying sounds. I have no particular gripes here, I suppose any loud and unnecessary sound would qualify Although I lived in a house in Lewes which had a railway tunnel underneath – my mum visiting spilt her tea as the rumble went underneath – but we had stopped noticing. So, and I am now partially deaf, I doubt I will find any new ones. But being positive what are the best loved sounds? Being inside when it is raining hard and windy outside? Maybe a child proclaiming an absolute truth? Nice music (by my definition!) and also all forms of laughter rather than sniggering – one for worst sounds! I also loved the Laotion comment of how they differed from the Vietnamese, they plant it and we listen to it grow! I might have got that a bit wrong. I once cried in Brussels Cathedral when the choir started singing – the sound made me cry, I have no idea what the words meant. Some languages are seductive – I like both Irish and Scottish brogues for different reasons, but also like Spanish. This could be a good debate!