The visions of a brave new world I experienced growing up in the English countryside weren’t those haunting the world today. But maybe they weren’t completely different either.
Great essay. This sentence was really beautiful with sight, skid, slightly, sliding.
Joycean! There, I've said it.
"Then the car would pull into sight and skid slightly as it passed the entrance to the house and headed to the lower part of the yard and the grey bars of the yard next to the milking parlour before sliding to a halt."
Thank you, David! I appreciate your kind words. I try to craft and shape sentences as carefully as I am able but some, like this one, just come skidding out.
Excellent skid! I think most editors would say. And most people love a sentence that skids because if they are tired, it holds their attention and keeps them from falling asleep. One should never drive a car or read a book if they are too tired and may fall asleep 😴!
We used to have a Ford Escort, and given the scene you painted, it was all the more hilarious. What an unmasculine vehicle!
I also enjoyed that AI also means artificial insemination. It reminds me when I kept hearing BLM (Black Lives Matter) because during archaeological days it meant Bureau of Land Management.
But I can see you and I are consuming the same material re: Artificial Intelligence because I have also taken note of the mass purchasing of data to feed man's latest monster.
But I don't want to skip over how you beautifully pulled us into your father's world of work. It reminded me of when I read Centennial by James A. Michener. I didn't expect to learn so much about cattle!
Made me think of an episode of Clarkson Farm but with the added humor of the modern AI obsesson.
The Archers also came to mind, with its second agenda, at least in the 60s and 70s, of bringing modern methods of farming to the countryside. I can hear the opening song of the Archers in my head, and that little ditty remains the same to this day. The original earworm?
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of AI is the willingness of people, especially in the business world to capitulate to it, without question.
And there is also now among business people the obligatory brag that they are now "focused on AI" even if they are just doing the same old stuff that they have been doing for years.
I guess FOMO is rampant among CEOs! I haven't listened to the Archers for decades, but it was part of the soundtrack of my childhood. And I can also remember the tune!
In my childhood, we kept goats, for milk, but we were a hobby farm and the milk was for family consumption, so my parents had regularly to find someone who owned a billy goat to breed with our does, and then watch for when the does were in heat; take them, in our van, over to where the billy was; leave them for a day, and then bring them back, hoping it had worked.
It usually did, and in the fullness of time, the doe delivered twins or triplets, which we children found so much fun to play with, and my mother would start milking again. My parents did try keeping a billy goat once, but his horn got infected and didn't get better under treatment, so had to be put down - the property was relatively small and the smell of a billy goat is something fierce, so they never got another.
So I thought I understood the facts of life around farm animals, and it was with considerable shock when I later learned that commercial operations didn't leave breeding to chance and went directly to AI. I understand why they don't take the risk and know we benefit from it in the reduction in food prices, but it still seems unnatural and well, exploitive of the animals. Electronic AI seems similarly exploitive because it benefits from data produced, often at no cost, from humans.
Playing with the goats sounds like a great chldhood memory, Holly!
I think you are right about humans exploiting animals. We do it all the time, and not just on farms. It's our arguably defining relationship with the world. And I wish they hadn't hoovered up the internet to make LLMs for AI. It would probably be a lot smarter if they hadn't.
Really enjoyed this, Jeffrey. The contrast between the slow, tangible ‘AI’ of your childhood and the frantic digital AI of today is striking. Your father’s world of careful bloodlines, hard work, and patience feels like a wise counterpoint to our current moment. Beautifully observed and written.
Sometimes I can't really believe it myself! It feels like it all happened to someone else (or didn't happen: as Larkin said, ‘Nothing, like something, happens anywhere’).
AI is very intimidating in India people seem to be losing their jobs over it. Children love it because it helps them learn but keeps them from having to think for themselves. Which doesn't seem so bad unless one doesn't mind losing their independence. Unless no one kindly informed them that they had any in the first place. Thanks this great essay. Look forward to your thoughts concerning AI as it progresses or lumbers along in future posts.
AI is very intimidating in India people seem to be losing their jobs over it. Children love it because it helps them learn but keeps them from having to think for themselves. Which doesn't seem so bad unless one doesn't mind losing their independence. Unless no one kindly informed them that they had any in the first place. Thanks this great essay. Look forward to your thoughts concerning AI as it progresses or lumbers along in future posts.
I absolutely loved your take on ‘AI’ it was refreshing, interesting, and insightful. I mean, as city kid who knows nothing about the artificial insemination of cows this was fascinating! :)
A wonderful essay Jeffrey, filled with nostalgic mentions, the 'slurry spattered data repository' especially, although the farm I grew up on was a sheep farm, every document always had its obligatory smear of sheep poo somewhere! And the Ford Escort... what was it about those cars? Our rather handsome farmhand, arrived every morning in much the same manner as you describe, reeking of aftershave, clothes ironed, a smile for each and every stable girl—we had horses too—which sent them all giggling and useless scuttling to the muck heap to argue which of them he would actually ask out—answer none, he preferred the farmers wife, and yes there's a story to be told there!
Unlike cows, the sheep didn't necessitate any AI intervention, our rams performed a mighty job and were proud of it but I am sure if if they hadn't, an AI man called Bill, John, or Dave driving at 60 mph down the small farm lane, skidding to a halt at the bottom in his prized Ford Escort would have happily appeared!
Reading about your father's data repository brough to mind the data my Dad and uncles kept on our farms in northern Alberta when I was growing up. They had a similar system and it was mostly for grain crops. My Dad would record all of his information in a tiny notebook he carried in his pocket. I still have my Grandpa's from the 1940's and 50's where he recorded the daily price of grain which he would learn from a radio broadcast while sitting at the big oval table in the tiny kitchen.
I loved this essay Jeffrey. The mucky, green Ford escort had me laughing and I was right there in the farm yard with you the whole time. Thank you.
Great essay. This sentence was really beautiful with sight, skid, slightly, sliding.
Joycean! There, I've said it.
"Then the car would pull into sight and skid slightly as it passed the entrance to the house and headed to the lower part of the yard and the grey bars of the yard next to the milking parlour before sliding to a halt."
Thank you, David! I appreciate your kind words. I try to craft and shape sentences as carefully as I am able but some, like this one, just come skidding out.
Excellent skid! I think most editors would say. And most people love a sentence that skids because if they are tired, it holds their attention and keeps them from falling asleep. One should never drive a car or read a book if they are too tired and may fall asleep 😴!
We used to have a Ford Escort, and given the scene you painted, it was all the more hilarious. What an unmasculine vehicle!
I also enjoyed that AI also means artificial insemination. It reminds me when I kept hearing BLM (Black Lives Matter) because during archaeological days it meant Bureau of Land Management.
But I can see you and I are consuming the same material re: Artificial Intelligence because I have also taken note of the mass purchasing of data to feed man's latest monster.
But I don't want to skip over how you beautifully pulled us into your father's world of work. It reminded me of when I read Centennial by James A. Michener. I didn't expect to learn so much about cattle!
Ford Escorts in Britain at the time were often a young man's car!
🫨 Really? Now, that’s interesting. As a child, it felt like a downgrade from our Ford Farlane!
Three Shitty American Cars The British Had Better Versions Of https://share.google/BA9NXWfvL4mCGCaqC It seems the US and UK versions were different!
I love it! 😅
😅 I've no idea what a Ford Farlane looks like!
Made me think of an episode of Clarkson Farm but with the added humor of the modern AI obsesson.
The Archers also came to mind, with its second agenda, at least in the 60s and 70s, of bringing modern methods of farming to the countryside. I can hear the opening song of the Archers in my head, and that little ditty remains the same to this day. The original earworm?
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of AI is the willingness of people, especially in the business world to capitulate to it, without question.
And there is also now among business people the obligatory brag that they are now "focused on AI" even if they are just doing the same old stuff that they have been doing for years.
I guess FOMO is rampant among CEOs! I haven't listened to the Archers for decades, but it was part of the soundtrack of my childhood. And I can also remember the tune!
In my childhood, we kept goats, for milk, but we were a hobby farm and the milk was for family consumption, so my parents had regularly to find someone who owned a billy goat to breed with our does, and then watch for when the does were in heat; take them, in our van, over to where the billy was; leave them for a day, and then bring them back, hoping it had worked.
It usually did, and in the fullness of time, the doe delivered twins or triplets, which we children found so much fun to play with, and my mother would start milking again. My parents did try keeping a billy goat once, but his horn got infected and didn't get better under treatment, so had to be put down - the property was relatively small and the smell of a billy goat is something fierce, so they never got another.
So I thought I understood the facts of life around farm animals, and it was with considerable shock when I later learned that commercial operations didn't leave breeding to chance and went directly to AI. I understand why they don't take the risk and know we benefit from it in the reduction in food prices, but it still seems unnatural and well, exploitive of the animals. Electronic AI seems similarly exploitive because it benefits from data produced, often at no cost, from humans.
Playing with the goats sounds like a great chldhood memory, Holly!
I think you are right about humans exploiting animals. We do it all the time, and not just on farms. It's our arguably defining relationship with the world. And I wish they hadn't hoovered up the internet to make LLMs for AI. It would probably be a lot smarter if they hadn't.
Really enjoyed this, Jeffrey. The contrast between the slow, tangible ‘AI’ of your childhood and the frantic digital AI of today is striking. Your father’s world of careful bloodlines, hard work, and patience feels like a wise counterpoint to our current moment. Beautifully observed and written.
Thank you for reading and commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for this insight into a world I know nothing about. Where I grew up, "una vacca" was, more often than not, a woman of loose morals.
The funny thing is that knowing you now, Jeff, I always find it difficult to picture you growing up in a farm.
Sometimes I can't really believe it myself! It feels like it all happened to someone else (or didn't happen: as Larkin said, ‘Nothing, like something, happens anywhere’).
Ha! Fantastic essay, Jeffrey. I was delighted when I realized where you were going with it.
May you be right and you’re thinking about the present AI and it’s capabilities.
Thank you, Holly! Glad to have you as a travelling companion on this journey!
AI is very intimidating in India people seem to be losing their jobs over it. Children love it because it helps them learn but keeps them from having to think for themselves. Which doesn't seem so bad unless one doesn't mind losing their independence. Unless no one kindly informed them that they had any in the first place. Thanks this great essay. Look forward to your thoughts concerning AI as it progresses or lumbers along in future posts.
AI is very intimidating in India people seem to be losing their jobs over it. Children love it because it helps them learn but keeps them from having to think for themselves. Which doesn't seem so bad unless one doesn't mind losing their independence. Unless no one kindly informed them that they had any in the first place. Thanks this great essay. Look forward to your thoughts concerning AI as it progresses or lumbers along in future posts.
Haha, this wasn’t the kind of AI man I was expecting, but it was nevertheless no less fun. 😄
When I worked in Sussex in the 1960s the local AI man was a lovely chap affectionately known as “spunky Barker “
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing, Jim!
How ... visceral! Brilliant connections as always, Jeffrey!
🙂 Thank you, Troy!
A wonderful essay, Jeffrey.
I absolutely loved your take on ‘AI’ it was refreshing, interesting, and insightful. I mean, as city kid who knows nothing about the artificial insemination of cows this was fascinating! :)
I'm grateful for your generous words, Michael! The odd thing looking back is how normal all this seemed at the time…
Ohh that’s so interesting! I guess, we don’t know what’s ‘normal’ or not when we’re young as we have nothing to compare it to.
Thanks Jeffrey :)
A wonderful essay Jeffrey, filled with nostalgic mentions, the 'slurry spattered data repository' especially, although the farm I grew up on was a sheep farm, every document always had its obligatory smear of sheep poo somewhere! And the Ford Escort... what was it about those cars? Our rather handsome farmhand, arrived every morning in much the same manner as you describe, reeking of aftershave, clothes ironed, a smile for each and every stable girl—we had horses too—which sent them all giggling and useless scuttling to the muck heap to argue which of them he would actually ask out—answer none, he preferred the farmers wife, and yes there's a story to be told there!
Unlike cows, the sheep didn't necessitate any AI intervention, our rams performed a mighty job and were proud of it but I am sure if if they hadn't, an AI man called Bill, John, or Dave driving at 60 mph down the small farm lane, skidding to a halt at the bottom in his prized Ford Escort would have happily appeared!
Thank you, Susie! The handsome farmhand and the farmer's wife - it sounds like the plot of a novel developing there!
I am working on it !
A super essay, Jeffrey, evoking wonderful memories of childhood holidays in Ireland.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Maureen.
Reading about your father's data repository brough to mind the data my Dad and uncles kept on our farms in northern Alberta when I was growing up. They had a similar system and it was mostly for grain crops. My Dad would record all of his information in a tiny notebook he carried in his pocket. I still have my Grandpa's from the 1940's and 50's where he recorded the daily price of grain which he would learn from a radio broadcast while sitting at the big oval table in the tiny kitchen.
I loved this essay Jeffrey. The mucky, green Ford escort had me laughing and I was right there in the farm yard with you the whole time. Thank you.