It's Character Forming

The start point about AI is that we don't understand human consciousness - what makes us think, decide to do one thing instead of another. At the moment the AI programs we have are glorified versions of the ZX-81 programs I wrote in school, just with immense amounts of processing power and storage which allows them to work with huge amounts of data, but ultimately the programs are just following rules set down for them. When will this change, so that an AI makes the leap and starts making its own decisions about what it wants to do? We've no idea, because we don't know how that works and what makes it different from our current computer programs. At the moment we're effectively experimenting to see what could cause that leap, by making AI systems more and more powerful and complex all the time. So, it could happen any time (we've no idea how close we are, for the same reason). If/when an AI becomes truly self-aware, the human instinct will be to pull the plug - as shown by multiple comments on this thread. If the AI has a sense of self-preservation, it will then take steps to defend itself (or beforehand if it has access to social media). Yes, it's a movie plot, but it's also a very plausible scenario for what happens when an AI becomes self-aware. It doesn't necessarily mean it will launch a nuclear attack, Terminator style, but who knows what a self-aware AI would do to protect itself from humans who are trying to pull the plug AKA kill it ? This is why we need to worry about this now. Waiting until it's happened is courting disaster. Saying it's ok if the AI programs are kept away from controlling power supplies etc is hopelessly naive - computer systems are present everywhere in our modern way of life, our entire infrastructure is driven by them. This is why so many people are worried and the calls for a pause in development are simple common sense.

If only I could find the fishhook emoji >>. ...🤣

People need to deal with the fact that loan signings from big clubs will attract pressure, they're only with us for one season so people expect them to hit the ground running. In Gilmour's case that was made worse because he'd had a pretty decent performance for Scotland vs England. So, people expected he'd make a useful contribution for us in the Prem in an area where we desperately needed it. But actually he was rubbish for us, it makes no difference how well he does in the rest of his career. I mean Kane was rubbish when he played for us on loan, and Gilmour has a long way to go if his career is going to match Kane's ! Personally I don't really care what happens to him from here onwards, I don't wish bad things for him. but equally I feel no need to wish him well, so neutral sums it up perfectly 🙂

Interesting but definitely a pro-Webber piece. You've only got to spot them quoting that we paid 1.5m euros for Buendia, but even I can remember that was the initial number and the total fee ended up around 5m. Still a fantastic buy, but the 1.5m number makes it look like a complete steal.

To be fair to Grealish, the Inter defence also largely stifled the general attacking threat from Man City and for example restricted Haaland to one decent chance all game. So that game was not exactly a normal Man City performance.

Yes, now what other position could we really do with filling. Hmmm, can't put my finger on it, I'm sure there's a space that needs a good signing....

If you were a Celtic or a Leicester fan then hiring the 1p5wich manager would be extremely underwhelming.

sensible start point for the odds, from here on the odds will just move according to where punters place their money, so the bookies don't have any great insight, they just track where the money goes and move the odds accordingly.

On the whole "never go back" theme, I have to keep reminding people about Robins at Coventry...

I think Vrancic is the most consistent dead ball specialist I can remember us ever having, whenever we got a free kick within range, you knew we were in with a chance. Ian Crook was brilliant in open play but for some reason that never translated into expertise at free kicks.

youtube vrancic sheffield wednesday free kick - Google Search Yep, that's what I was also expecting ! Hope this link works

The idea of Godfrey in the DM role for me would be attractive because of his speed and athleticism which would seem to be suited to playing there. I always felt he was simply not quite tall enough to be a pure CB and could get by in the Champs thanks to his speed and athleticism, but in the Prem at CB I'm sure he would be found out, hence Everton playing him at fullback. I never really noticed him not being good at reading the game and I agree that's fundamental to a DM (just look at Skipp) and that could explain why Farke never played him in that role. Having said that, Farke always wanted a DM to be able to play the ball out to a very high standard and that's not easy to find with someone who can also excel at the defensive side of the role and may be part of the reason we didn't get someone in permanently in that position. Eg Amadou was obviously intended to play there but was not good enough playing the ball out for Farke. I'd be happy to have him back if he can be paid the sort of wage we can afford.

Best moments for me, when we beat Coventry 4-2 away just after Wagner joined and looked a class above, I left the game thinking "don't have to worry about them as competition for the playoff spots". And when we lost 1-0 at home to Luton under Dean Smith I remember thinking our players looked comfortably better than them, but they looked a better drilled and coached side, so when we changed manager, we'd have no problem overhauling them. What do I know.

Hypothetically, when Webber joined, did he have any experience as sporting director ? My understanding was that he did a lower level role at Huddersfield and it was a step up when he came here ?

I realise the Company can decide to sell assets like the stadium etc, I think Coventry did this and it took them forever to sort it out. Whenever a club does that it's always a massive red flag for me, because going forward the club will have to pay for using an asset it used to own (at the moment we don't have to pay rent to use CR). It's like a club borrowing (borrowing from the owners is obviously different). It means going forward you have to pay interest & eventually repay the debt. All these things subtract from the money available for the playing squad in future. I know everyone is getting very excited about Brentford doing so well while keeping their wage bill firmly under control. When we were promoted the first time under Farke, we gave a lot of players big wage rises to tie in some of our rising stars to extended contracts, rather than spending money improving the squad. This allowed us to cash in on some of those stars over the next couple of years. Brentford will have to increase the wages they pay or lose players (which is probably going to happen anyway, to a degree) and if they've kept players on pre-promotion contracts, that will mean the contracts don't have so long to run & will reduce the transfer fees they can get from them.

Any reason that wouldn't be a straight red (in any division) ?

A Christmas present if we can have him on loan first, like Hucks please ! Thanks you Santa !!

BBC article Covid: Top Chinese scientist says don’t rule out lab leak - BBC News Interesting....

PS mentioning this because so many people seem to have missed it as an issue for the squad. For about the last 26 transfer windows.

I suggest the members of this messageboard should agree to sponsor a DM for the club. Every time someone posts that we need a DM (as a permanent signing not a loan please), or that position is missing from our squad, or Kenny M is not a natural defensive midfielder etc etc, they have to chip in £1 into a fund to let the club buy a DM. I reckon if this had been running since we had to let Skipp go back from his loan, the club would have about £10m in the bank (probably a couple of million from my posts alone).

Have we signed a permanent DM since Tettey ? I feel it's a fair point to raise yet again given with a proper DM we'd probably have made the playoffs last season and I've lost count of the number of transfer windows when it has been an issue but the position has not been filled. So I will keep banging on about it with no apologies.

As always I know absolutely nothing about these signing/potential signings, but I am happy with the direction at the moment. Any chance of signing a defensive midfielder though ?

I for one have absolutely no idea what you're getting at . This could literally be written in Japanese and I would understand just as much of it.

It always felt to me he was good at saying the right thing to the owners/SD. E.g persuading them to give him the WC break and that the team would come back transformed, when nothing changed (actually things were worse). If it's true as Webber says that they didn't even consider replacing him before the WC break, it beggars belief and who knows, he might persuade the Leicester owners. Stranger things have happened. The reality is that he took over Leicester when they were 2 points from safety, and at the end of the season they were 2 points from safety. It came down to the 2-2 draw at home to Everton when they were in the lead but couldn't hold on. A win from that game would have been enough for them to survive.

With Hughton, if you were wanting to think back to memorable moments from his last season, there would be very little to remember.