A delightful early afternoon. Lou was in town and we took in the delights of the V&A. There’s a room full of doors I’m very fond of. There’s so much stuff in there, amazing items, mundane items, bits of history on display for all of us that like to have context on the generations before us that have informed how the less reactionary and internet trained humans understand the workings of the world.
We mistake absorption for capacity. These LLM things we call AI are absorbing more than we can absorb and doing it quicker and then rehashing it and presenting it as new, and often getting it wrong or squiffy based on what they’ve eaten. In the end they are a bit quicker than your mate who thinks its aliens or flat or vampires or lizards. They are just as oblivious to the things the scientifically adventurous have learnt over generations of trial and error. They see the scientific word “theory” and mistake it for just a speculation, rather than scientists being coy and pointing out that nothing can be proved for absolute certain. The more ignorant among them take that truth and wield it like they’ve discovered it, usually at heart because they believe in a different Greek “theo” prefix – the one that often precedes “logos”.
So we looked at ceramics and furniture and big Buddhist statues and then we met a deeply Italian restaurant manager who scared me out of the café there and into a lovely healthy place for a daal. Then up Kensington Church Street for excellent coffee and more full-on service. There’s either something in the air and everyone is being a bit extra, or I’m not very well socialised at the moment.
Lou was correctly observing though that the 18 – 20 year olds, an age group you are perhaps most likely to find in customer facing roles – they are the kids who lost a couple of years social education by missing school during COVID. For the next couple of years you are going to be sold rude coffee and indifferent pints. I expect the generation will end up with one of those monikers. “Generation Meh,” perhaps. Slouching around unable to hide their boredom or distaste, making good coffee with absolutely no love. “All our burgers come to you with our special ingredient – mild distaste”. Maybe it’ll rewrite the social playbook and we’re all about to get ruder and call it being assertive. We shall see.
Evening found me back home batch cooking. The weekend is gonna be busy. I made a huge pan of chilli and will work through it for the next few days. Not too spicy mind you.
Gotta go to bed. Picking up a van at 8 tomorrow. Urgh.
AlBarclay 