You can buy a dream or two to last you all through the years
And the only price you pay is a heart full of tears
Francoise Hardy sang it so sadly to a young teenager, along with many other songs that echo in my memory. I won her LP Francoise Hardy sings in English at a school ‘tickey’ evening in 1964. Instantaneously, I was a life long fan.
My friend Phillip Birch heard of her arrival in South Africa and scored her autograph for me.
His photo was in The Star running alongside her and David Gresham her impresario. Gresh was also a Swazi boy so organized the signed autograph. Oh, swell my heart!
Her version of Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne was a wonder song:
And you know that she’s half crazy but that’s why you wanna be there,
And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China,
My favourite was probably All over the world – it was particularly meaningful to me when my son was soldiering in Afghanistan.
If maybe some night
You come back from afar
Who cares if tonight
I don’t know where you are
I have never denied being sentimental.
MHDSRIP
In other ways of surviving Lonesome Town, 3.5 million people use chatbot platforms daily as companions, romantic partners and even digital ghosts.
Woebot is a metal health chatbot which responds with cognitive behaviour therapy. It is not a generative chatbot like Chatgpt – conversations are written by writers with training in evidence-based approaches.
This indicates a significant shift in how people interact with technology for emotional support and socialization.
However, while these interactions can be beneficial, they also raise concerns about addiction and the potential negative impact on real-life social skills.
Digital ghosts, or AI-generated avatars of deceased loved ones, offer another perspective on how AI can influence human emotions and relationships
This practice taps into cultural traditions of communicating with the dead but also introduces new ethical and psychological challenges. While some find comfort in these interactions, others worry about the potential for prolonged grief and the blurring of reality and memory.
AI companions also extend into the realm of romantic relationships, with platforms offering AI-generated girlfriends gaining popularity
AI companions can provide temporary comfort and help improve social skills, they cannot replace the depth and physicality of human relationships. companionship and emotional support in elder care, hospitals, and mental health facilities.
For example, … a robotic pet that responds to voice commands and provides calming conversations for dementia patients, reducing the need for constant human supervision and enhancing patient comfort stress management, coping with loss, or relationship counselling.
In the workplace they can provide employees with confidential, 24/7 support for stress management, work-life balance, and mental health issues.
Most of the above paragraphs on AI chatbots were extracted from an article in Quantumrun – The Futures -No 59
There is a wonderful new world out there being made possible by AI, which can largely wipe places like Lonesome Town from the map.
But as in all things moderation is the key (something we are not very good at!)
sillysocksonfriday 