From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 24/02/2026 4:59 am, john larkin wrote:   
   > On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:52:17 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 23/02/2026 2:31 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >>> On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:12:29 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >>> wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 22/02/2026 3:22 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >>>>> On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:59:04 -0800, john larkin    
   >>>>> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>    
   >>   
   >>> There's a part of San Francisco that used to be quiet, a mix of old   
   >>> brick factories and Victorian houses. It's called The Arena now, rents   
   >>> are crazy, and parking is impossible. All because of AI.   
   >>>   
   >>> My wife has her speech therapy office in a big building with a lot of   
   >>> small units. It used to have a lot of hair stylists and tattoo salons   
   >>> and artists and units available to rent, with lots of space in the   
   >>> parking garage. Now it's jammed with AI geeks and here's no parking   
   >>> available. This has got to crash.   
   >>   
   >> There's no obligation. Any good idea attracts people who think they can   
   >> exploit it, and most of them are wrong, and that does tend to produce a   
   >> crash when the incompetent hangers-on go bankrupt.   
   >>   
   >>> If AI is so good, why would any AI company need more than four   
   >>> employees?   
   >>   
   >> You've got to be able to express your ideas clearly enough for the AI to   
   >> take away a self-consistent set of targets. The kind of AI that can make   
   >> sense of idiot ambitions doesn't seem to exist yet, and if the silly   
   >> questions that get aired here are a representative sample of the crap   
   >> they might need to deal with, they probably never will.   
   >>   
   >> One of my friends grand-daughters works for Microsoft in Australia on   
   >> exploiting artificial intelligence, and it good enough at it that   
   >> Microsoft are moving her work at their headquarters at Redmond WA.   
   >>   
   >> Artificial intelligence is a resource that human intelligence can   
   >> exploit. It's not obvious that it could exploit itself.   
   >>   
   >>>>    
   >>>   
   >>> I'm not boasting. Anybody could buy these things, even you.   
   >>   
   >> I certainly could, if the need arose. So why did you waste bandwidth   
   >> boasting about them?   
   >   
   > Not boasting, but recommending gear to people here who might do actual   
   > hands-on electronics. I asked about VNAs and cable manufacturers here   
   > recently. It's better to be helpful than nasty.   
   >   
   > $1000 and some imagination could start a nice little business.   
      
   You also need customers.   
      
   > I might teach a class at a local college. Every student would get some   
   > parts and some solder and a DVM.   
      
   And a collection of horrible examples how to do electronic design ineptly.   
      
   Your lack pf enthusiasm for hiring people who have got Ph.D.s tells the   
   story.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)