2014 — 21 July: Monday
What is it about a cup of tea that sets the world to rights?1 Meanwhile, I somehow doubt there will be a 45th anniversary moon walk... That all seems rather a long time ago.
Here's a little...
... something being played on Brenda's iPod, just to keep me going until the box set of Season #4 is available...
... or until the BBC manages to fix its broken2 iPlayer — whichever occurs sooner.
Were I an...
... intelligent machine, I feel positronically sure I would try to keep that fact a closely-guarded secret:
He outlines various ways for AI to escape the physical bonds of the hardware in which it developed. For example, it might use its hacking superpower to take control of robotic manipulators and automated labs; or deploy its powers of social manipulation to persuade human collaborators to work for it. There might be a covert preparation stage in which microscopic entities capable of replicating themselves by nanotechnology or biotechnology are deployed worldwide at an extremely low concentration. Then at a pre-set time nanofactories producing nerve gas or target-seeking mosquito-like robots might spring forth (though, as Bostrom notes, superintelligence could probably devise a more effective takeover plan than him).
Let's not give them too many ideas before embedding Asimov's Laws, shall we?
Thanks, Mr Postie
He extruded this from his little van ahead (way ahead) of the more normal delivery time.
The little smiley sticker says "YO HABLO ESPAÑOL E INGLES" which is a jolly good job. Mind you, the INGLES comes in the form of subtitles. No biggie.
Quite why...
... a different Mr Postie has just shown up and thrust this biography of the Bright Spark who won two Nobel Prizes...
... into my hands is a mystery for another time. I'd spotted it when I was winkling out Sarah Dry's more recent book, the one on Newton's manuscripts and where they ended up.
For much of my life...
... I've managed to skate along knowing neither the Truths, nor even the Postulates, (if such even exist) of the dismal "science" of economics. Yet again, while submitting to the dictates of the necessities of Life by dodging into Waitrose and scooping some (at least) of them into my cheerful little scan-as-you-go green bag, I'm struck by their seemingly paradoxical pricing strategy. Case in point: I can buy a sealed pack of two 'cylinders' of that favourite staple — "Daddy Biscuits" — for £2-69. Or I can buy a pair of 'cylinders' of same, identical spec, at the price of "Two for £2". Now, I ask you, where's the rational pricing in that?
I was too busy...
... repelling a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses nearly six years ago, it occurs to me, to say anything more at the time about that Kondrashin performance of Scheherazade I'd been listening to (on the radio) when they disturbed me. The artwork of the CD is irritatingly silent on the identity of the cover painting, but I could easily be persuaded it was based on a design by Romain de Tirtoff (aka Erté) though I have only two slim volumes of his work, so I can't be sure. I suspect the late Simon Hakiel would have known; he had a much more sumptuous reference volume to hand.
That CD has just been my current high-volume listening. It was the 11th CD I bought, in mid-August 1983. For a penny change from a tenner, in HMV.
[Longish pause] With the welcome resumption of the ability to snaffle BBC radio files, my further listening can now include:
- Cerys on 6
- Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
- Guy Garvey's finest hour
- Iggy Pop
- Jazz Line-Up
- Jazz Record Requests
- Sound of Cinema
- Freak Zone
- Words and Music
- World on 3
With a delightful side-order of five short "Essay" talks by AL Kennedy, and an edition of the Early Music Show from the 2014 York Early Music Festival that I caught live last week. Furthermore, now that I can 'expose' the window at the front to some 'fresh' air out of the direct firing line of the setting sun (we're in a bit of a dip hereabouts) and match that with a wide-open patio door, the living room temperature is plunging down towards a mere 26.3C as I type. Cool!