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The Marie Curie Cycle Challenge, or How My Ipod Became Sentient

The futuristic nightmare of our technology becoming smarter than us and taking over is one of the recurring themes of sci-fi. It’s a constant worry in my life, where I have lots of very clever gadgets, and only one not-so-clever me.

The Marie Curie cycle challenge on Saturday was pretty hard going, for two main reasons. The first is that it was very wet, and the second is that I had to try and keep up with the rest of Team Lard (who were usually ahead of me). Fortunately, I had brought my trusty ipod along with me, so that when I got stuck on my own, I could keep my spirits up with some music.

My ipod was on random play.

  • The first track of the day was 1999 by Prince (which you can listen to here), a nice upbeat track to start off with. Not an inspired choice, but not a bad one.
  • From there, it went straight to SOS by Abba (which you can listen to here). This was pretty appropriate for the circumstances, and made me hard laugh enough that John dropped back to see what was going on. But surely just a random coincidence.
  • What made me suspcious was when it moved on to Save Me by Nina Simone (which you can listen to here). Again, I laughed hard enough to worry the rest of the team. A definite pattern is emerging!
  • From here it went to “This may be the last time” by the Rolling Stones (which you can listen to here) – surely a clear warning from my ipod!

I have no idea what prompted my ipod to become so aware of what was going on around it to provide such appropriate songs. Needless to say I’ll be keeping a close eye on it in future, in case it starts sending me more messages!

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 22:28 and is filed under Ramblings. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “The Marie Curie Cycle Challenge, or How My Ipod Became Sentient”

  1. craigavon cycle trail - four get wet in craigavon | rain miles count double Says:
    May 13th, 2009 at 11:19

    […] Spirits were good in the team and there was a bit of joking with other cyclists that we passed. Norwin’s iPod seemed to be aware of what was happening, selecting tracks at “random” that suited the day perfectly; ABBA’s […]

  2. sunday ride 2009/05/24 | rain miles count double Says:
    May 28th, 2009 at 16:28

    […] the wind was nowhere, both bike and rider were working well cruising easily at over 20mph and my iPod made another claim for sentience by picking a perfect track – Paul Van Dyk’s enormously uplifting “We Are Alive“. […]