Pages

Monday, 12 February 2024

Purely mechanical and perfectly mediocre


The Tories are dire and apparently beyond reclamation, but viewing this guy as a realistic alternative is futile. He's a product of the transnational political machine which some time ago left national parties and their voters behind.

    


He was one of that large class of purely mechanical and perfectly mediocre persons connected with the practice of the law who will probably, in a more advanced state of science, be superseded by machinery.

Wilkie Collins - Man and Wife (1870)


Not far off if we count AI systems as machinery.

6 comments:

DiscoveredJoys said...

Even if you hold you nose and consider Sir IKEA a better option than the Conservative offering you still have to consider the malicious incompetence of the Labour Party standing behind him.

Right. Done that, not getting my vote.

A K Haart said...

DJ - and the malicious incompetence of the Labour Party behind him is quite scary. Lots of infighting could be a blessing.

Sam Vega said...

There's something about him - and that picture really brings it out - that suggests that he really doesn't want the top job. He acts like a man who has been seized by huge social forces, and attempts to propitiate them by talking and acting like someone who has always wanted to be PM. He should have realised he wasn't up to it, and ducked aside long ago. To his (very small) credit, his self-awareness makes him a better person than the likes of Blair, Johnson, Kwarteng, Gove, etc, etc.

A K Haart said...

Sam - that's my impression. It is surprisingly easy to see how a social and professional position plus a few "why don't you throw your hat into the ring?" type questions could take him in the wrong direction.

Doonhamer said...

He has improved a lot since his early days. See below.
CG and now AI have improved by leaps and bounds.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ipTpQNxV9c

A K Haart said...

Doonhamer - yes, if I had a personal AI avatar I'd certainly prefer an updated Max Headroom version over the latest Keir Starmer upgrade - it's not as sharp as Max.