The Failure of the Future: The Economic Dreamland, Radio 4
Could AI Make My Glastonbury Better? Radio 4
The Pomegranates, Radio 4
Let’s look back to Japan between 1950 and 1990.
It was a time of innovation and prosperity – the “bubble economy” of the 1980s was all about happy workers, booming industry, pioneering inventions... or was it?
Writer, artist and presenter of The Failure of the Future, Johny Pitts, is behind this look at failed utopias and what we might learn from them.
He tells the story of the Japanese physicists who recognised that just speaking to each other was not enough. They needed people with fresh perspectives and new ideas.
So the company had an open door policy that extended top to bottom – even a Nobel prize-winner had to be available to answer the questions of the youngest, wet-behind-the-ears member of the company. And that, my friends, is a kind of utopia I could live with.
It was a week for personal enlightenment. From Johny and his failed utopias to the world of artificial intelligence and how it can be applied to our lives.
AI is everywhere. But what exactly is it?
In the company of presenters Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong, our questions are answered: Is AI smarter than me? Could AI make me money? Will AI save my life?
Good questions, including one about making Glastonbury even better. Wellies on.
AI proves very useful for establishing which toilets have the shortest queues and ditto for the bars, said a journalist.
But there is much more to it. Take the planning of any music festival.
You don’t want the poetry tent beside the techno spot. Also it is never a good idea to put the food stalls next to the rollercoaster... not unless you want to wade through a sea of vomit. (Pass the wellies).
You don’t want the poetry tent beside the techno spot. Also it is never a good idea to put the food stalls next to the rollercoaster
Finally, a shout out to writer Brennig Davies for an entrancing short story, The Pomegranates, about a mother and her lost daughter.
Becca is missing and Angharad waits at home as the days get colder and the year grows older.
Finally, there is a knock at the door.
The Pomegranates is the Persephone myth reimagined in modern Wales. It is bewitching.