technology – don't confuse the narrator

background conversation

It’s nearly thirty years since Douglas Adams wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and introduced the Electric Monk to the world:

The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

I remember reading that and feeling a kind of recognition.
Continue reading “background conversation”

I’ve already mentioned here that I was invited to take part in TEDx Leamington Spa last November, not as a speaker, but as a performer. There were just over a dozen speakers, and several other performers, each with their own take on the theme of “home”.

Before the event, I attended meet-ups and rehearsals and scribbled notes about all the different presentations, trying to make sense of a huge and very daunting task. During this time, I produced a couple of poems – including “fade to blue” and “information overload“, which can be read by clicking through to earlier blog posts – that I didn’t use on the day.
Continue reading “thoughts of home”

blurred borders

As a woman whose business falls broadly within the technology sector, I’ve been involved in a number of conversations recently that talk about “women in tech” as if there were a clear dichotomy between arts and science.

Personally, I find it hard to view the world in stark black and white like that.
Continue reading “blurred borders”