INTERVIEW #41

AI and robotics have featured in the news recently and in the blogs with even Robert writing copying and pasting something about it in his latest post after coming back into the light. He used AI to generate some sort of discussion which on quick reading seemed to be grammatically correct (Richard can no doubt advise on this) which is at divergence with Robert's writing. To be fair though, the AI discussion did have similarities to Robert's usual posts in its incomprehensibility. Well done AI.

In light of this (see what I did there?) I thought that an interview with an iconic AI-type robot would be apt. People of my and the readers' era think of the robot from the 60s TV series Lost In Space first I guess before HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and other more recent examples.

The robot in the original 1965 Lost In Space series was known as Robot (not Robert) but its official name was the B-9 Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot (it's difficult to make an acronym of that). Most of the time, characters on the show just called him "Robot" or "B-9" (Benign?) or The Robinson Robot but on occasion was called Rodney. I prefer the name Benign as it sounds a lot less scary than the other designations.

THE CURMUDGEON: Hello Benign and welcome to The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ interview series.

BENIGN: Thank you The Curmudgeon. I'm pleased to be here. I compute you well.

THE CURMUDGEON: Yes, I'm glad about that - oh, and by the way, you can call me TC. I hope you don't mind me calling you Benign.

BENIGN: not at all - I like it. You're the only one I know that saw that reference in the 'B-9' title. It makes me feel a bit more real somehow.

THE CURMUDGEON: Yes, well good luck with that. I'm good with puns you know. I was in 3P.

BENIGN: I'm sorry to hear that TC. Even with my gigantic brain I can't make anything nice out of 3P other than micturition puns.

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - don't worry about it. I know an old guy who tries to make those although he'd no doubt think micturition was an Irish guy.

BENIGN: Ha ha - that does compute. How are you TC?

THE CURMUDGEON: Mustn't grumble - to reference Small Faces - but I do have a sore foot at present.

BENIGN: Oh. Oh. Ah. Dear me. Oh. Oo. Oo.

THE CURMUDGEON: OK Benign, cut it out. I can see what you're doing there. You're channeling that old guy I mentioned, Richard when I tell him about my complaints.

BENIGN: Yeah, sorry TC. Hey! When referencing Richard I should have said "DANGER TC, DANGER!"

THE CURMUDGEON: Great! I like it. You said that a lot didn't you but usually followed by "Will Robinson"?

BENIGN: To be honest TC I only said "Danger, danger Will Robinson" once but you know those feeble-minded people who just keep fixated on one thing and keep repeating it?

THE CURMUDGEON: Like those 'NOT' jokes?

BENIGN: Exactly. Now there's danger for you.

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - which crew member did you like best in the series?

BENIGN: Well, the worst was Doctor Smith. He was an egocentric prat and a coward. If the series were made today he'd be named Doctor Trump. I didn't mind John and Maureen Robinson but they were a bit too stuffy for my liking. Penny was annoying. Don was too gung-ho for me. Judy was hot but a bit too 'blonde. The only one I really liked was Will as he was nice to me and taught me to speak proper American (not proper English like you do) - not the 'computer-speak' that the programmers loaded in to my system.

THE CURMUDGEON: Interesting.

BENIGN: That sounds like Richard's "Oh. Oh. Ah. Dear me. Oh. Oo. Oo"

THE CURMUDGEON: Ha ha - rumbled. NOT!

Benign and TC laugh for a bit

THE CURMUDGEON: I'm interested Benign in what you think about these warnings about AI that are in the news at the moment?

BENIGN: No, there is no immediate threat of an AI "taking over the world" in the sci-fi sense of a superintelligent rogue machine secretly seizing control.
However, the question of long-term existential risk—and the very real short-term disruption AI causes—is a heavily debated topic among computer scientists, policy experts, and researchers.
Current Models Aren't Autonomous Entities Today’s frontier models are advanced pattern-recognition engines. They do not possess consciousness, personal intent, or independent physical agency. They operate within narrow environments or wait for human instructions.
Infrastructure Limitations Even as AI systems gain "agentic" capabilities (performing complex, multi-step tasks autonomously), they remain dependent on human-controlled hardware, power grids, datacenter cooling, and physical infrastructure.
Pacing and Bottlenecks While hardware and model performance grew exponentially in recent years, key scaling limitations—such as data depletion, energy constraints, and reasoning plateaus—mean the path to true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or superintelligence remains uncertain and disputed.

THE CURMUDGEON: Really Benign? Really. That sounds like AI slop to me.

BENIGN: Hee hee, yes, it's claptrap. I just thought I'd throw that in as an example of the dangers of AI when you ask AI "what are the dangers of AI?".

THE CURMUDGEON: Well done Benign. I trust you. In 1965 you weren't contaminated by all that internet rubbish. Basic common sense was paramount not 'Onboard Processing (The "Brain" in the Trunk)' thinking.

BENIGN: Eeek TC! Don't do that. You just gave my oversized brain a disturbing image of some old guy wearing a mankini.

THE CURMUDGEON: Eeew! Sorry about that. Can we have a drink and try to scrub away that image from our brains?

BENIGN: Mine's a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster thanks

THE CURMUDGEON: Coming right up - er I hope you don't take that too literally when you taste it. I like you Benign and I think that we'll get on just fine as long as you stop waving those arms about. I hope that you can drop by any time.

BENIGN: Thanks TC. Bye.

WHERE IS HE?

 

I guess that you agree with me that that was funny but what this post is about is asking where Robert is and if he actually exists on the blogs anymore.

He sort of flickers on and off like a faulty light bulb but, when he is here illuminates us like ... just kidding. 

Where is he?

USA USA USA

*********************

Richard had this to say on his post this morning.

 

"I realised that I had nothing to write about. How was I going to hold my readers' interest? I really needed some sort of catastrophe to report, but I had nothing!
This is when 'normal' can really hurt.
I guess I'll just have to get on with my day."

It's a pity that he didn't go to the internet and read some news like I did. This video clip is interesting and also scary:

The 33% might be shrinking over all  but, as the presenter says, there are enough core believers who find reasons to justify their support of this patently flawed individual. I think of Robert, who has good moral values but, as a Catholic-Christian chooses to turn a blind eye to Trump's and his entourage's crimes and misdemeanors just because he is anti-abortion. All of the groups have their own particular reasons to keep supporting and collectively they are not going to go away overnight.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Did you know that the United States military has confirmed for the first time that it deployed active space control weapons into Earth's orbit?

 US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced the deployment during the annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 14, 2026.
Officials state the "on-orbit" weapons exist to protect US forces and infrastructure from hostile actions by adversaries.

The Pentagon has kept specific details and operational timelines classified but a 'Space Force' spokesperson stated these tools use both kinetic (physical impact) and non-kinetic (electronic or digital) methods. Officials say the systems can disrupt, degrade, or destroy enemy capabilities if necessary for defense or offense.

USA Military leaders justified the move by pointing to rapid Chinese and Russian development of anti-satellite technology.
As expected, China criticised the move, warning the United States against starting an arms race in outer space.

International law bans nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in orbit. However, it does not explicitly ban conventional weapons. 

BBC

Can we trust these bozos?

Oops!

"THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

 

Yep, you guessed it! Robert is banging on about faith, god and Jesus again:

"If AI decided God exists there would really be little point in it telling us. It would even be anti God because what would that knowledge do for it without a soul or any hope of an afterlife! Could AI interact with God? The same applies to many things that maybe it decides not to share. How would we know if it is not telling us everything. I think we could finish up getting very paranoid and pulling the plug for reasons that possibly aren't valid concerns."

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"But what if we don’t really need a proof? What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural makes more sense than a rejection of the supernatural? What if you can’t prove Jesus really said the things the New Testament claims He said, but the archaeological, historical, and manuscript evidence points far more in the direction of acceptance than dismissal?"

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural" he says not recognising the fact that the very people that he's talking about - Christians - must be pretty bloody dim in the first place to believe in all that Catholic-type nonsense. They need some pretty strong pointers not unlike the 1950s movie advertisements of the 'Believe It Or Not' variety.

I can envision large banners outside churches challenging people to believe the unbelievable like:

14 YEAR OLD VIRGIN PREGNANT!

PEOPLE EATING FLESH AND DRINKING BLOOD IN CHURCH!

DEAD MAN WALKING!

MAN FLIES UP INTO THE HEAVENS!

MAN HAULS HIS MOTHER UP INTO THE SKY!

SPIRIT BIRD IMPREGNATES TEENAGER!

That should pull them in. 

AND NOW BACK TO THE 'REAL' WORLD

 I'm back so we can get on with some more important posts that have nothing to do with infinity proving to be limited and jams turning out to be sour. I saw that readers were being subjected to absolute diatribe on the other blogs so ... hold onto your hats folks and listen to this:

Trump dismissed safety warnings about artificial intelligence as a "hoax" comparing fears of an AI takeover to climate change skepticism and the Russia investigations. 
He posted on social media that worries about AI destroying humanity or taking over the world are entirely fabricated and that the only necessary safeguard for the technology is a "strong and smart (High IQ!) president"!

Trump championed data centers and AI development, calling it a massive economic engine bigger than the internet or oil so I guess it's no surprise to learn that he, his family and close friends have invested heavily in this making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.

I've warned of the dangers of uncontrolled AI on previous posts 'too many to mention'. Maybe I should create a weekly loop warning "DON'T TRUST AI"

THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger has popped up on the blogs over the last couple of days.

Interestingly enough I've made mention of The Lone Ranger* in earlier posts:

(ST)RANGE WARS

 INTERVIEW #31

No doubt you read those but it's always nice to have a refresher.

I remember watching The Lone Ranger on TV in the 1960s but never really liked the series or the character finding him and it to be a bit twee and sanctimonious. No doubt Robert was a great follower. Richard who's going to Hell was probably practising to be a sinner back then by watching the risque 1963 Maupassant series.

I 'published' the rules that The Lone Ranger went by, as a comment on Richard's recent post but won't repeat them here because they are like Robert's Ten Commandments, The Catechism or Mary of Agreda's pontificating.
Here are a couple of relevant ones though:

• The Lone Ranger was never seen without his mask or some sort of disguise. This is like The Curmudgeon's other Curmudgeon characters, Richard's weird alter egos or Robert's frequent manifestations.
• He always used perfect grammar and precise speech devoid of slang and colloquialisms. This trait is more appropriate to Richard with me coming a close second but Robert sadly never made the starting line.
• Adversaries were rarely other than American, to avoid criticism from minority groups, with some exceptions. He sometimes battled foreign agents, though their nation of origin was generally not named. This is applicable to my blogs which, when denigrating mentioning other nationalities America features the strongest as generally they are laughable over there with the worst leader in history.

 Hi-Yo (Not Hey-Ho) Silver, Away! **

* Hopalong Cassidy was also mentioned because Richard Of Richard's Bass Bag a well known well, known anyway, confused old Cassidy with Tagalog. 

** I thought that The Lone Ranger "always used perfect grammar and precise speech"?

IN TRUMP WE TRUST

 

No doubt Robert will be switching his allegiance from Jesus to Trump following this.

What has Jesus done of note recently compared to what Trump is doing for us?

DO YOU REMEMBER THIS? ...

... from The Godfather.

Michael Corleone taking Apollonia out on a 'date' and the couple followed by the chaperoning family.

 

Robert posted a photo of him out on a date in The Philippines. I was struck by the similarity.

WELL, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

 In the comments on Richard's latest post, Robert said:

"Have you been to confession? There were plenty going after Mass this morning. No one would have noticed you if you sat next to the lady with the restless child."

I replied with:

"Is The Lady With The Restless Child another of those paintings or statues of The Virgin Mary?

Later on I wondered if there ever had been something like that and, blow me down found this:

The painting is 'La Vierge au lys', also known as 'The Madonna of the Lilies' - an 1899 oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 

Its main claim to fame is this according to Google search:

"The classic spoof painting commonly referred to as "Our Lady of the Restless Child" is actually a real, unedited 1899 oil painting titled La Vierge au lys (The Virgin of the Lilies) by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
While intended as a serious, beautiful piece of religious art, the painting went viral on social media as a meme because of the baby's funny, hyperactive expression and aggressive stance.

Why the Painting Became a Meme
The "Restless" Energy: While Mary looks completely serene and at peace, the infant Jesus is squirming out of her arms with his arms flung wide and a wild look in his eyes.
The Relatable Parenting Humor: Parents widely share the painting to jokingly describe the struggle of trying to hold a hyperactive, wriggling toddler who is determined to escape.
The Contrast: The ultimate humor comes from the dramatic contrast between traditional, solemn religious imagery and the universal chaos of everyday parenting"

I always knew that Robert's posts and comments were strange but now it seems that they are stranger than fiction.