That fellow would have us believe a machine will one day rival the artist’s palette and brush.
He made me sit perfectly still. He stood behind a tree legged contraption, flung a sheet over his head and bent down. In one hand he held aloft a device on a stick. All of a sudden the wretched thing flashed brightly and billowed smoke into the air. I was near blinded and almost choked. I’m to return tomorrow to view the result of his endeavour.
No, he is wrong. Next, they’ll suggest that machines will one day replace pen and ink.
Utter balderdash!
Thanks to Rochelle for hosting and Ted Strutz for the picture.
Click on the frog to see what others have come up with
It’s all been downhill since the invention of fire
I wonder what bright spark invented that?
Love that word – balderdash! Splendid. Imagine what the men in the photograph would think to the internet. Great story Keith
According the dictionary it was first used in 1674! Delighted you enjoyed it Lynn.
I did! And glad to see that word has such a long history 🙂
Dear Keith,
Delightful story. I used to work as an inker-detailer for a drafting firm in the 1980’s. At that point word was that in the not too distant future my job would be done by computer. Preposterous balderdash. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thanks, Rochelle. What will happen to jobs when everything in life is automated?
Y2K was supposed to throw the wrench in the gears of technology. Does anyone remember Y2K?
I was running my pub that night, and the bar was packed with locals wondering what would happen at midnight – and nothing did!
A universal experience: nothing happened. 🙂
And someday AI will make humans irrelevant…. or so they say.
Not just yet, hopefully! cheers Denise
Total balderdash! Then again, there you have Froggy, holding one of those contraptions, and calling “Watch the PEEPS!”
And they say one day messages will appear on a screen as if typed by a ghost.
Nonsense, that! 😉
It’s all nonsense, the lot of it…probably! Cheers Na’ama
Cheers (wait, how did those letters appear on the rectangle? They keep appearing as I touch something. This must be a delusion. Do you see the same thing I see?!!) 😉
I did actually see something like that when I got back from the pub last night!
Who needs a screen? Soon the thoughts will appear in our brains exactly as though we imagined them…
oh oh … I’m not quite ready for THAT much transparency … 😉
Perish the thought!
Poppycock and codswallop, old bean
Indeed, absolute bunkum dear boy.
If only they knew… Good fun Keith.
If they’d been told what was to come they wouldn’t have believed it! Cheers Iain.
Nice one Keith
Thanks Di.
How far we’ve come in some ways. Naysayers will always exist and continue to be proven wrong.
So true. Cheers.
p.s. love this week’s froggie!
Thank you!
Imagine if… Good story Keith.
Tracey
Some modern devices have gone beyond imagination. Thanks Tracey
As long as we don’t teach them to think so that they can replace us.
I’ll remind you that you said that in 10 years time when a device is thinking for you! Cheers Mimi
My father-in-law who is 94 used to say that in his younger days no one even imagined the changes that have happened.
Well written 😊
Even 20 years ago we couldn’t have imagined things like Alexa and smart TV’s. Where will it go next? Thanks Lakshmi
Wow I never thought of the smell. Great last line.
Apparently they did! Thanks so much Tannille
Who knows where the future will take us. I never thought there’d come the day when if I had a question to ask, or a fact to find, I would just go to my computer and voila! You’d think we’d all be a lot better informed than we are, I guess. Thought provoking.
Everything we now do will seem old fashioned and out-moded in another hundred year! Cheers Sandra
Ah, the good old days…
I wonder what things will be like a hundred years from now. Still no flying cars, I bet.
You want to bet? You’re on!
Ah, the well-worn phrase – ‘It’ll never catch on’. They said that about air travel – in my father’s lifetime!
It wasn’t that long ago the suggestion that phones could take pictures would have seemed fanciful!
Oh, wow, you captured that so very well. I remember sitting for just such an “old-timey” photo many many years ago to my Gram happy. She threatened me with bodily injury if I so much as breathed. When the photo came out, instead of a smile, I looked terrified. I’d love to know where that photo went, now, though.
That’s hilarious! How times have changed. Thanks so much.
Bubkis! Balderdash is one of my favourite words.
This was a fantabulous story. Next thing you’re gonna tell me no one will go to the moving pictures…
…even better than that – they could soon be in colour!
No!!!
I agree, what balderdash – next thing we will all have plugin memory chips implanted in our brains, least we forget.
Then we can get lost in the past.
You could well be right, but hopefully not in our lifetime!
That’s a nice light-hearted look at technological progress, Keith, and a rather good take on the prompt.
Most kind of you Penny, thank you.
You did an excellent job of portraying their thoughts and feelings over this new invention.
Little did they know where it would go next! Thanks Fatima.
like I’m reading a classic book. The language is very elequent and I love the humor at the end!
That’s most kind of you. Thanks so much for dropping by.
Really fun, Keith. A whimsical look at “progress.”
Thanks so much Linda.
Good stuff, my maths teacher used to say, Bunkum, trouble, tripe and balderdash
They don’t make words like those any more, lol!
Progress … will it be for the good or bad? A whimsical looks at what the future
has in store or, perhaps, the present has in store. It’s always a pleasure to read you stories.
Isadora 😎
If it’s not in store now it will be tomorrow! Thanks so much for your kind words Isadora.
Very clever! I enjoyed this trip to the past
I’m delighted you travelled with me Laurie
The opening of Al Capone’s vaults and Y2K were both two big disappointments. I, for one, don’t miss many of the old things like manual typewriters as I used them. Balderdash! I’ve read if you want a job in the future, become a teacher. It’s going to be a while before a computer can stand in front of a class of primary students and teach them, etc. The computer wouldn’t have the patience or personality. I love Froggie and his camera, Keith. 😀 — Suzanne
You raise many good points Suzanne. Progress brings with it many highs and lows, but continue it must and continue it will. Once again I spent longer messing around with the frog than I did writing my piece but I think he’s wort a bit of my attention!
Ha! I love this retrospective/hindsight story! Good one!
I’m pleased it worked! Thanks so much.
Love it! It’s amazing to consider where we were and where we’ll be in ten years even.
I have trouble keeping up now! Cheers Brenda
As a photographer I am often amazed at the skills and tenacity of those who came before me.
There certainly was much more involved. I used to have my own darkroom and developing photos was much more fun than clicking a screen