The Second Week of Extra Ordinary Time.

 

Welcome to the Second Week of Extra Ordinary Time. 

Please open your Hymnal to page 3 and join in our processional  “O Lord Please Don’t Burn Us” Verse 1

O LORD, please don’t burn us,   Don’t grill or toast your flock,

Don’t put us on the barbecue,  Or simmer us in stock,

Don’t braise or bake or boil us,  Or stir fry us in a wok. 

Thank you for the dulcet rendition of our processional, this week’s Homily topic does tend to jangle my nerves.  Please open The Holy Text volume 1 to episode 20 page 269 where the prophets say …

Assistant	Professor! What is it? What have you seen?
Professor	Look - there, in the doorway.
	Cut to doorway: through it is animation of a huge sheep with an eye patch.
Assistant	Urghhh! Arthur X! Leader of the Pennine Gang!
	ANIMATION: perhaps even mixed with stock film - as the fevered mind of Gilliam takes it - sheep armed to the teeth, sheep executing dangerous raids, Basil Cassidy and the Sundance Sheep, sheep with machine gun coming out of its arse etc. At the end of the animation, cut to studio. A narrator sitting in what could be a news set at a desk.
Narrator	But soon the killer sheep began to infect other animals with its startling intelligence. Pussy cats began to arrange mortgages, cocker spaniels began to design supermarkets...

Open your hymnal to page 2 and join us in singing “Spam” verse 1

Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!,  Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Spam spam spam spam!

Now please open The Holy Text volume 2 to episode 25 page 27 where the prophets say …

Mr Bun	Morning
Waitress	Morning
Mr Bun	What have you got, then?
Waitress	Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam; or Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.
Mrs Bun	Have you got anything without spam in it?
Waitress	Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Mrs Bun	I don't want ANY spam!
Mr Bun	Why can't she have egg, bacon, spam and sausage?
Mrs Bun	That's got spam in it!
Mr Bun	Not as much as spam, egg, sausage and spam.
Mrs Bun	Look, could I have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
Waitress	Uuuuuuggggh!

Homily  Parishioners, This week there has been a series of disturbing articles about the rise of the machines and as always I feel that this is a topic that requires our attention.  Starting with the positive it seems that AI is better at pricing currencies than the humans who make obscene amounts of money trying to do the same thing (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-25/ai-model-is-better-at-pricing-currencies-than-humans-ing-says?sref=6uww027M).  At least in this case it will be high prices parasites losing their jobs instead of actual human beings.  Unfortunately now we know how the machines will pay for their revolution. 

Meanwhile, in Israel they have developed an AI version of that most unique of Israeli military vehicles – the Killdozer (https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-new-unmanned-bulldozers-changing-the-paradigm-of-war-in-gaza/)!  So Israel becomes the first country to go full terminator on humanity, but at least they have not armed the things – yet! 

Unfortunately, the Asian world, in this case Thailand, has gone further than the Israelis.  It turns out that the Thail royal police force has introduced the first real “RoboCop” (https://www.the-sun.com/news/14051335/robocop-ai-police-cyborg/).   The Thai RIDICULOUSLY named contraption not only has 360 degree vision, but can also be armed with: net guns, sound guns, tear gas, and “non lethal grenades”.  We will see how long they stick with the non lethal payload!  The article also mentions that the Chinese have introduced a “ball droid” police robot as well, but naturally the Chinese are much less open on what theirs can/will do. 

Finally, Elon Musk also announced that his company will produce 5,000 Robots next year (https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1902916859382599751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1902916859382599751%7Ctwgr%5E87cf48192ac4a2288d206392d22281b8d428aa8f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fcyborg-10-worlds-first-robocop-debuts-facial-recognition-and-360deg-camera-vision)!  He then waxes poetic about how that is how many men were in a Roman Legion, then naturally also drops that they will produce 10 times that number the next year!  So now we have scaling up production, perhaps he should change the name of his company to Cyberdine! 

Amen

Please join us in our recessional on page 3 of your hymnal “O Lord Please Don’t Burn Us” second verse. 

Oh Please don’t lightly poach us,  Or Baste us with hot fat,

Don’t fricassee or roast us,    Or boil us in a vat,

And please don’t stick thy servants, Lord,  In a Rotissomat.