.. to TJM.
Anyway, now that the parameters of my existence are becoming confrontingly clear I’m not sure that I’ll have the time to expand on an idea for a sequel to TJM called The Cosmic Detective that my late wife Helen and I started working on in the ‘90s. I got as far as writing a couple of songs for it, one of which, We Saw it Coming appears on the Living on a Volcano CD.
The Cosmic Detactive follows the story of the Mutant as a popular rock star who eventually accumulates the affections of almost everybody on the planet and in a world-wide simulcast plans to persuade humanity to mass suicide for the good of the universe and of course the cosmic detective who’s trying to thwart his evil plans.
There are elements in it of every SF story ever told I suppose as well as being set to music, but there are too many good song ideas sitting around awaiting my attention without the perils of embarking on a science fiction musical, an area in which I have no experience at all. That’s not to say it’s not a good idea, but if the world’s awash in any commodity it’s good ideas – I bet you’ve got a few. It’s realising the good ideas that’s the tricky part.
I saw a science piece in The Age recently. It was one of those pieces that, a bit like the first sparse reportage of Aids, struck a chord in my gut that said, this may actually be happening, man, and this could be the start of something world changing.
The article started ‘Tokyo: Food giant Nestlé is planning to hire 1000 robots as sales clerks at stores across Japan.’
The implications of ‘planning to hire’ sounds like they’re already part of the workforce and can negotiate on their own behalf, which is clearly not the case and most likely sensationalist or at least sloppy journalism - but as easy as it is to write the opening line off, the next bit is potentially even more provocative.
‘The first batch of the chatty humanoid called Pepper will report to work by the end of the year at outlets that sell coffee capsules and home espresso machines.
"From December, they will start selling coffee machines for us at big retail stores," Nestlé Japan spokeswoman Miki Kano said. "We are sure that our customers will enjoy shopping and being entertained by robots."
Pepper - which has already been at work, chatting with customers at wireless giant SoftBank's outlets - has proved an effective marketing tool for the Japanese mobile carrier, delighting managers who put it to work collecting customer opinions.
The 120-centimetre-tall robot, which moves on rollers and has what looks like a tablet computer strapped to its chest, was unveiled in June by SoftBank president Masayoshi Son.
He billed it as an "emotional" robot that understands "70 to 80 per cent of spontaneous conversations".
Pepper is set to go on the market from February for about $US2000 ($A2165) apiece.’AFP*
Unfortunately, on second reading it doesn’t stack up as earth-shattering news at all. It seems that the cute little robot (it has to be cute in Japan) is merely a glorified doll on wheels with random bits of conversation to respond to customers with conversation that may or may not be appropriate. I suppose the price is a bit of a giveaway.
Oh well. I suppose the SF nut lurking inside me is disappointed, but then the current thrust of linking science to corporations is bound to end in disappointment. The American space program was motivated by the Cold War competition with the USSR with no immediate commercial benefit in sight and probably would’ve stalled in the corporate boardroom for just that reason. It was such a fine and daft thing to do and the world would been poorer for it never happening, but given the state of the world it’s hard to see how such a thing will ever happen again, well, in our lifetimes anyway.
I don’t know if you’re a Dr Who fan, but I’ve been watching the current series with interest. It’s a world, perhaps a universe away from the original series, which I’ve discussed before and which was scary enough for the young viewer in its own way, some of it due to the incidental music.
The new series is slickly produced and certainly looks the goods, the polar opposite of the original series which was noted for its reliance on cardboard props. I persuaded Maria to have a look at a couple of episodes and, despite not being a SF fan she found it quite impressively written. We both imagined it could be very disturbing to young minds however – I know if I was watching it as a sub-teenie I would be pretty rattled by some of the extremely sophisticated ideas being promulgated, presumably for the benefit of older followers of the show.
But, there again, I suspect sub-teenies these days are considerably more sophisticated than I was at that age. I wonder if this is a good or bad thing, but overall I’m glad I was brought up without the pervasive influence of the Internet thrusting a vulgar world onto my unsuspecting and naïve young brain.

It's our Dad's (Dick's and mine) 90th birthday on Saturday. Dick and I call him David rather than Dad and he's been living uncomfortablty in Rotorua for yonks (the pollen plays merry hell with his sinuses) and most of his mates in the region have died but he's happy enough with his lot to live out his days there. His three sisters are bussing him up to Auckland to celebrate his birthday over the weekend and I'm sure they'll have a fine time. When I see my father I see a lot of myself and perhaps I also see my destiny. It's a bit scary but if I can maintain an interest in the world a sense of humour, both of which qualities my father possesses, I shall count myself fortunate indeed. I'm already jealous of the amount of hair he has.

* reprinted from The Age article which has since been removed