Some time back, I began looking at how AI/VR is affecting our lives and, perhaps more important, in the near future. Is it good to have a small robot reading books to small children? How long before your job is better done by a machine? And so on… Then the focus shifted to that word which we over-use and with good reason – things.
For a start: Things will soon be running our lives. The worst/best thing that can happen. Things keep changing/things will never be the same again. Things can only get better/things cannot get any worse.
And then: Get ahead of things, put things behind you, look forward to things, look down on things, look up to things and get on top of things. My memory will never let go of “Things getting on top of you” mainly because of what happened in Ostrava a long time back. I was in a group being taken on a tour of a coal mine (I had no choice) and we entered a lift which was to take us down to the coal face. Then we walked, bending so as not to hit our heads on the ceiling, for what seemed an eternity and, since I am a pretty good claustrophobic, I felt a little ill. Our guide then opened a door at the end of the passage and… we were in the carpark! The “lift” had taken us all of 5 meters down and I felt pretty silly when we realised this. I wish this thing had never happened…
Go back with me to my school days where we came up with “If things don’t change… they will have to stay as they are!” which was our way of throwing philosophy back at one or two of the teachers. About this time, I remember some songs like “These foolish things (remind me of you)” sung by Frank Sinatra. The lyrics are a little dated (“A cigarette that bears a lipstick’s traces. An airline ticket to romantic places. And still my heart has wings these foolish things remind me of you” At school we turned these into extremely vulgar lyrics of course.
Another Sinatra song was “Just one of those things”. Then how about Duke Ellington “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”? From 1962, take a look! A couple of years earlier, Max Bygraves (best known for his hit “Tulips from Amsterdam”) recorded “Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be” which I urge you to listen to. The lyrics transport me right back to 1960. “It used to be fun Dad an old Mum paddling down old Southend, but now it ain’t done, never mind chum Paris is now where we spend our outings”
That’s things for you…
dickwife 