From Pluto with Love

I wonder if there's someone on Pluto wondering this
Whether mass extinction or a pandemic could result from an asteroid
colliding with their world...
...and whether early warning systems exist to prevent such a thing.
They probably have an early warning system.
With many heroic types ready to scramble at a moments notice.
In defence of the realm.

Would they have realms on Pluto ?

After all, Pluto is so small it was declassified for a while.
But who's to say it's not inhabited by Lilliputian people ?
To them it could be infinitely large.

Tardigrades could be their biggest threats.

They survive in space...

The reason for this ramble is the imminent flypast -
New Horizons, after an epic journey of nine years
will hurtle past Pluto, taking snapshots as it goes
at approximately 32000 miles an hour.

Not even slowing down for a pit-stop.

Drive-by mapping.* ( now is a livelink to New Horizons app )

But I digress, I was discussing the possibility of someone on Pluto watching a shooting star cross the heavens.
Would they make a wish for luck ?
What would they think if they knew it was us ?
It makes me aware that we are the aliens...

New Horizons, the Google street - mapping car of the heavens?

Not quite, but you get the idea.
It's one thing that Google are not involved with.
Speaking of which,
the latest tinkering Google-wise seems to stem from software known as Deep Dreams*
essentially virtual neural networking which can produce dream - like images.
 Do computers dream of electric sheep, and all that.
They've even made it open source , so everyone can get strange...

I tend to be wary of this sort of thing as it makes me question - why are they so intent on showing us their new toy ?
Do they really want people feeding endless images into it ?

Monkeys, dogs and insects are common Deep Dream warps...

Personally, I think the end results are interesting / nightmarish, but ultimately, rather dull.
Exactly what you'd expect from a virtual attempt at dream simulation;
Beyond the initial 'oh that looks trippy like 'shrooms or acid',

Images that look ' a bit weird ' but are ultimately repetitive in content.
Morphing and convoluting into endless permutations of increasingly outlandish oddities.

So, yes, it's a bit trippy -  if every trip was a bad one.

It's as though the machinery freaked out and went into meltdown, obsessing one element of the 'trip'.

The images are only really interesting when you realise they have been made by a device with no cognitive awareness.
The ongoing attempt to emulate humanity by machine is absorbing huge amounts of money and producing - not much.

Give it up, I say.
Or show us ground-breaking advances in medical technology.
Just stop tinkering with this sub - Terminator world of Skynet that doesn't exist.
Although recent news involving a death at a German car factory indicates otherwise.

Perhaps we could combine the two -

Let's make Pluto a Penal colony for murderous robots !

I'm sure there's a film there

If so , please remember where you read it first - intellectual property and all that.

I want a percentage on the merchandise.

Thank you!


This post contains a link to a sequence created  by Johan Nordberg , using Deep Dream .
Please exercise caution if viewing under the influence of psychedelics.
Actually, you won't need any...
I accept no responsibility for disturbance / flashbacks induced...

If The Future Is Now, Where Are The Robots ?

When I was younger I dreamed of a time when I could roam around the moon in a buggy.
I'm sure I read somewhere (probably in  Look and Learn) that by the year 2010, robots would dominate the workplace, and automation would allow humans greater freedom and 'leisure' time.
Quality time, free from drudgery.
Hurrah, I thought.
The world will be such a great place when I grow up.

So...no flying cars either...

People, they lied.
THEY LIED.
Whoever they are (cue footage from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers).


Or perhaps they didn't lie, but are quietly making it happen, just very slowly...
Of course, the whole idea implies that there is cohesive global structure in place regarding work / life balance.
Which is a palpable nonsense.
Unless we really are the subjects of a New World Order ruling elite, who are probably alien lizards (cue footage from Invasion etc...)
So let's not go there...

Robotic Vacuum of the future (available now)

My point is that whilst we now have industrial mechanisation (certainly widespread in the automotive industry), where are the humans enjoying all those leisure pursuits instead of being engaged in dull, repetitive labour, hmm?
Are they writing blogs like this ?
Or watching endless videos of cats ?
Or logging into social media sites to see what everyone else is doing ?
Or having a life instead of writing blogs like this ?
You get my drift...


SPOILER ALERT: look at the diagram on the next link, or the following paragraph will be meaningless (more so than usual,anyway)...

Apparently the best countries for work / life balance  are Denmark,  Spain and the Netherlands, with Belgium and  Norway as close runners...
Unfortunately, I live in the U.K. which is number 23 on the list : all those other countries (often demonised in our tabloids) are ahead of us... the U.S.A . is even lower at 29 , with  Australia lurking down there, grafting away, and as for Japan :
Have a day off, guys !
Shocking stuff then.
Now don't forget this is a work/ life balance thing, so on the one hand you could say the hard working economies are in better shape than the others, but are they ?
Purely in terms of GDP, it seems to be the case - but then surely a better quality of life is an intangible variable which cannot be measured ?

Who are the OECD anyway ?
By the way, if you clicked that link, you got a scary looking energy statistic.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is based in France, has 2500 employees and has existed since 1961.
I got that from their home page.
They must have poor PA, because who ever heard of them ?
They certainly don't crop up in everyday conversation:
Did you see that awful statistic from the OECD ?
I know, terrible, isn't it.
Shouldn't be allowed
No, but then they are a neutral organisation who only exist to impart advice to businesses and governments based on ...
(Sounds of disgruntlement continue as our everyman stereotypes wander offstage)

My point is that regardless of work / life balance , we are sadly low on the domestic robotic front , unless you happen to own a Roomba™ , in which case, bully for you and all that, but I say where is all the leisure time we were promised ?