Absurd

Vision du Reel - I lost view of the Landscape

I watched J’ai perdu de vue le paysage at Vision Du Réel last week and I don’t know whether I like or dislike this documentary, ironically for the very topic that it is exploring. The idea of the eternal return, repeated over, and over. The premise of the documentary was simple. “I have a neighbour and I want to make a documentary about him preparing his next show”, except that inspiration is hard to find, and then the pandemic comes in and scuppers plans for the show to take place, and then there is uncertainty during lockdowns, and the wait for public life to be rebooted, and then the show takes place.

The Absurdity of AI in Creative Writing

The Absurdity of AI in Creative Writing I find it absurd that someone would spend billions teaching AI to do creative writing. The reason this is absurd is that reading takes time and humans already generate more content than we can consume. The result is that creative disciplines, such as writing, video making, and other forms of creativity or art, need to find an audience and people willing to pay for it.

Disengorging Rural Roads With Wider Motorways

When I was walking in Neuchatel I noticed something striking. I didn’t see a single advert in favour of expanding the motorways. I expected that the Right Wing friends of Global Warming would push for the expansion of the motorways in Switzerland. That wasn’t the case. In Switzerland, at the moment, they want to expand the A1 motorway between Geneva and Nyon and I suspect that the Gravière in Eysins was expanded to store all the soil that will be needed to widen the motorway.

Watching a Roomba

In theory the entire reason for getting a Roomba is to let it do the vacuuming and forget about it. In reality I always feel the desire to watch roombas as they do their work. It doesn’t make any sense, because the entire goal of a roomba is that it automates what many people find to be a chore. Vacuuming can be quite boring and quite frustrating, especially during the muddy seasons.

On an amusing conversation in Denmark

We had been walking around various parts of Demnark with a friend when he said that we should go to a bar. In some countries the name would not be allowed but in this part it is. It’s spunk bar. It’s located on one end of Westbork in Copenhaguen. We were having a drink when a person with a chinese tattoo walked past and told us “this is snake”, a strange statement.