99 Questions to ask your grandparents #59

59. How do you feel about X (i.e., a current trend, a popular political issue, a new invention)?

Question fifty-nine strikes me as not in the mode of this meme. Up until now all questions have been about past matters, things a hypothetical grandchild might want to know about gran or gramps before they die and take their secrets with them. This one is about what the think of things in the here-and-now. One would assume (or hope) the grandparent-grandchild relationship is a close-enough one the child knows what they feel about X, Y, and Z, and maybe they wish they didn’t. In general, current trends and new inventions are not positively looked upon by the elderly i.e. new and different things often evoke anxiety/resistance rather than curiosity.

I’ve been scribbling a blog for nearly twenty years (can you imagine?); I have written how I feel about everything, or nearly. Spo-fans can probably guess what Urs Truly thinks about things. All the same I will give this question a try.

A current trend: cryptocurrency. Lunacy! Sooner I’d eat rats in Tewkesbury than buy bit-coin. The fervor for this resembles Tulip-mania, The South sea company, and Beanie Babies. Whenever someone tries to sell me bitcoin, I ask them to explain what is bit-coin good for other than dubious and criminal transactions?

If there is a Spo-fan who can answer this for me, I would be blithe to learn.

A popular political issue: Artificial Intelligence. I don’t have an opinion, as I don’t have the facts, what it is or what it is supposed to do. Certainly I hear a lot of hot emotions about the stuff. Some of it is along the line A.I. will save us and some is along the line of the opposite viz. A.I. will destroy us. The amount of money going into it is beyond obscene and it too looks like another bubble industry. I don’t feel a need of such. Someone says I interact with A.I. all the time I just don’t know it. So far A.I. hasn’t entered my work. There is talk how A.I. will revolutionize Medicine and simultaneous talk it will eliminate jobs including mine. I doubt anyone really knows what will happen.

A new invention: Air Fryer. I don’t have one but I am open to the idea, provided I figure out what it is. At times Someone has voiced getting one. Since I don’t know how they work, I can’t judge if it would be indispensable like the microwave or sit on the shelf unused with the fondue set and the rice cooker for twenty. At least I don’t fear it will cause the downfall of La Casa de Spo or make cooking obsolete. Again if Spo-fans are familiar with such devices, please tell me what you use it for, how often, and do you recommend a certain brand, and can you buy it with bit-coin.