Computer Programmes | Writing Despite Computers and Programmes

It started yesterday with this post.
Why?
In a very short space of time the above popped up in my notifications. I was bemused. Did this means that WP’s AI was taking an interest in me (along with lots of others, let’s be realistic). For whimsical reasons I just could not leave this alone. It simply begged a reply, nay a response even.
The first things that struck me was the phrase ‘a palindrome of 100 or more’. I reckon more than a few steeped in English Philology would argue about the words ‘palindrome of…‘ maintain that the said is not ‘Of’ anything; it just is….and there would be a counter argument. What fun.
The second thing which was a really serious issue to my UK Civil Service trained mind. A post of (say) 1221 words (or 1331 or 1441 etc etc). Now. Where does the count start?
At the Title
At the body of the post
OR
After this introduction???
Dear Reader This is not just frivolity or pedantry . For all I know the AI will be keeping a check on the words, because apparently there is a reward. A badge or something of significance in an Internet / Social Media (Scoff ye not, some influencers get substantial sums for mentioning products on their sites). The only solution was to go Civil Service on it and judge that the post starts on the first word of the title, on the basis that the title is an integral part of the post. Thus I am 257 words into the post already; 21.0483% of a post 1221 word post. How hard can this be?

Overview
Machines were mice.
Men were lions
Once upon a time
But now it’s the opposite
It’s twice upon a time

These seemingly quirky words from the opening of Moondog’s 1970 orchestral work Stamping Ground, stayed in my head throughout that most challenging and stressful era which started in the mid 1980s. The general move from a clerically based method of office working to one computer driven, and the realisation that, we the ones at the desk end of the jobs could no longer navigate around some of the more unhelpful and unnecessary strictures placed upon us by remote folk. The computer was there, initially to do their bidding, but slowly and with more pace it has gained traction. You may or may not have heard of a book published in 2025 warning of the dangers of Super AI ‘If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies’ by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares. This is not the place to discuss said book (a separate post if ever there was one!). However. There is a great degree of not so latent hostility to AIs. THUS I ask myself will any readership this post attracts be content with me not being polemical about any subject matter relating to AI generated ‘stuff’. Maybe not, mine is a modest blog and does not cause a flicker in Social Media. Therefore I can write what a durn well please on this what I see as a particularly amusing subject.

So What?
Just referring back to that 2025 book and a spasm of comments on Social Media, it seems I should not be taking things lightly, even some would say frivolously. After all, is it not so that everything we input electronically onto a website or even our laptop will be recorded and filed away in Computer memories, to be analysed, utilised and weaponised at some later date. Apparently.
Well I guess there are folk who would like to think that they should be concerned in case a Computer System is watching their every move. Good for their egos I suppose.
Me? Not really. No doubt all my purchasing, viewing, listening, commenting, interacting, and subscribing stuffs are collected somewhere, along with everything else. Me and a few billion others.
And along comes WP and it wants me to play games with it. Should I feel offended.
Again, I input onto my laptop and blog…Me? Not really. It’s a bit of a diversion isn’t it? And not dissimilar to WP’s daily prompts which a number of folk enjoy or feel motivated by (Err…I keep forgetting about it. Ooops)

Yeah. Let’s Play WP
But, WHY you ask? Why should I take part in some sort of strategy, Marketing maybe?. Should I be here and now involving myself in what WP’s AI obviously has programmed or been programmed to do. Have I become but a mouse running up and down a cyber maze in the hope of getting some electronic cheese, or whatever rewards mice actually?
Now there’s a thought. Apparently not – sweet foods, grains, nuts and likewise are their go to; strong cheeses could even offend their very sensitive sense of smell.
And there’s another thought. In my desire to check for authenticity I checked this on the internet and learnt something new.
Or did I?
Could it be, dear reader that somewhere a Computer Programme has been evolving the intent of which is to spread the idea that mice do not like cheese? But what purpose would that serve you say? WELL…I input once again….WELL..How do well know this is not all part of a very long term strategy to believe information found on the net. Because friends, is it not so that everyone just loves to find out that some conventional wisdom is not so. Ah-ha! We go…I knew it! Clever old me for thinking to check on that.
But….BUT my follower, is that not the case that Computer Programmes want us to do, The Mice / Cheese relationship validity is not important. The fact that you, I, the, we went to the Internet to check is the important thing. Who goes to a library to check anymore? Ha! You might say. Would my local library have information on the dietary habits of mice? Probably, once upon a time.
Now..?
Is It Twice Upon A Time?

At this stage you should be muttering, shouting or inputting along the lines of ‘I object. You started off this sub-heading with an ethical question, and then suddenly you veered off on some madcap rant about Cheese and Mice and Computer Programmes. What is that supposed to represent, other than a mindless trivial rant’

Well.
From‘Now’ to ‘Time?’ that totalled up 224 words (and maybe dots…I didn’t check). And That’s the easiest bit of stream of consciousness writing I have indulged in for a long time, which put me closer to 1221 with no effort at all.
Also you can now ask yourself.
Was he actually being satirical about the subject of alarmist of conspiracy charged writings or commentaries?
Maybe he was just being loveably silly and screwball in the style of 1930s comedy films?
OR…OR was he actually making a pertinent comments in an ‘Off The Wall’ way . For he did not end that section by referencing once more Moondog’s ‘Stamping Ground?
I leave that up to, you. While I count up the words from ‘At this stage’

181 and the rest of this sentence. This stuff writes itself I tell you! Which takes me to 918 words-920 this could on and on.(925) add to the 257 at the introduction made 1182 (1186)

Ending
Word counting is fun but if taken to excess is cheating (1216)
I say farewell then everyone

When I Want Your Help….

I was going to address another topic then on my ‘page’ was this insipidly coloured phrase ‘What is the one thing you would change about yourself?’. Were it not for the unhappy experiences of one of my good friends ‘Scottie’ at Scottie’s Playtime I would have been having a WTE (What The Earth- THE polite version- We must strive to keep an All Ages profile) interlude. But apparently, according to one of those hapless souls who work under the burden of being termed a ‘Happiness Engineer’, and I quote:

“The idea behind the feature was to help people with inspiration for writing blog posts”

To be brief, the day I need help from any WP programme to write my blogs is the day I know I have nothing left to say, and thus will shut down said blogs and watch Netflix, negotiate with the garden and plants on how they want things done, and playing board games (military and RPG).

This is also an insult to the blogging community in general as someone in WP has assumed that there are hordes of well-meaning folk who want to have a blog but have not the wit to write anything and need to be guided into various topics. If ‘What is the one thing you would change about yourself?’. is an example this tactic is as much use as a paper tissue party hat in a rainstorm. Bloggers and readers of blogs know it is a competitive world out in the Planet Blog and you had better come up with something original or catching, and not the invitation to an existentialist musing which has already been written from all directions, serious, and comical.

Or maybe on reflection I am being a bit too harsh, perhaps there is inspiration from these unwelcome, variable, inane comments. But maybe the folk at WP do not want to read the results.

Wait. I am not done yet

If the previous incident was not incendiary enough to send most respectable writers and bloggers reaching for allegorical pitchforks and burning brands, then as we all know there is vast range of combustible cyber material on there. Consider this one which has made itself known to a vast number of users…

Something Went Wrong
If you have not yet encountered it, then steel yourself.

There you are trying to access something, or are half way through something when all goes down and you get this message. No indication as to what went wrong, no hint as to the user, other than to ‘try again’ you are left there devoid of assistance or direction, quite aware ‘something went wrong’ Once you have calmed down and spared your innocent machine from a ruinous demise, it is time to muse on the business. Here we are in the 21st century on the cusp of quantum mechanics and physics being any everyday tool in computer work, and yet when there is an error all that the progammers can come up with is ‘That Something Went Wrong’. They have created these systems, evolved them, and yet obviously do not have the control we expect. We are left to conclude that the age of incomprehensible computer speak with numbers obscure abbreviations and a proliferation of full stops when there is a problem has gone. In their rush to supply speed and a galactic number of apps, programmers have lost control, and we are left with…

‘Something Went Wrong’

I cringe, shudder and weep at the thought of this message being used to the more physical aspects of the world, somebody, somewhere looks at the damage, shrugs and says ‘Something Went Wrong’

I conclude this, rather satisfied that I did not resort to virulent sarcasm, and very, very bad words; let me not be tempted to push my luck.

For there is worse out there.

In the Name of Merciful Gods or Reason. Or What-Have-You.

I do not know if you have encountered this one. It may be a quirk of Microsoft Edge alone. However; there you are typing out a familiar address or clicking onto a favourite and suddenly up pops an insipidly coloured page with a message that start with ‘Hmmm….’, I have never absorbed the details beyond that because an incandescent red mist descends. I am faced with a failure in the communications network and am given a message with ‘Hmmm.’ suggesting the problem is nothing to do with anyone at Microsoft, it is something I have done wrong and they are treating me with the gentle distain of a visiting uncle looking over a child’s shoulder at their homework. (unless that is computer homework, it which the uncle had best stay out of it)

I would suggest that the person or persons who thought up this one have never had to deal face to face with an irate member of the public. I would venture to suggest further that if they did treat a member of the public like this and were assaulted, then in the subsequent legal proceedings that despite the best efforts of any Microsoft Legal team the judge and jury would look leniently upon the said member of the public, even to the extent of awarding them damages.

I would suggest for the long-term safety and well being of whoever these remote folk might be they should consider replacing ‘Hmmm.’ with ‘Sorry’ for I am sure Micrsoft lose a number of customers this way (this is a restrained comment).

Conclusion

Anyone who works in a specialist field (and these days it would seem most of us), will be swift to approach criticism on our task with one variation or another on the lines of ‘Yes. But what the public don’t realise….’ .And I daresay computer folk have whole libraries of responses. However, and there always is an However. Computers invade all aspects of our lives in work, leisure, well-being and so forth. Thus saying.. ‘Yes but…

Guys, it does not cut it….

Do better.

Finally, for the next time I get one of these irritants from you I shall restrict my responses to a mature and seasonally gentrified

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