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It\u2019s hard to get a sense of where things are going re: \u201ccomputer\u201d when the industries move fast, and the headlines about them move even faster. A quick scan of the news now, as I write this, throws up pages and pages of stories: AI Is on the Brink of Transforming How Advertising Works at Its Core<\/em> (Morningstar<\/a>). Netflix\u2019s Reed Hastings Donates $50 Million to Fund AI Research for the Humanities at Bowdoin College <\/em>(Variety<\/a>). There’s an AI physio seeing patients in the UK. Can it fix my back?<\/em> (BBC<\/a>). The Quantum Apocalypse is Coming. Be Very Afraid<\/em> (WIRED<\/a>). Most people probably won\u2019t get to grips with the changes barrelling down the pipeline until it\u2019s too late and we\u2019re already entrenched in a system of fully automated luxury labour, where there are giant WeWork-sized server rooms full of computers writing TV shows and making adverts and we, the people, get paid less than minimum wage to clean the floors and stuff. <\/p>\n Just kidding! Everything is going to be fine, probably, maybe! Ironically the lesson in all this is that AI could never come up with a phrase as beautiful and brilliant and utterly stupid as \u201ceverything is computer.\u201d He uses it incorrectly as an adjective for one but the fact that he uses the word \u201ccomputer\u201d at all is actually quite anachronistic and gives the statement a sort of endearing, old timey feel, which is one reason why it has travelled as far as it has \u2013 because it reminds us of the past<\/em>. A time before<\/em> AI customer service bots and cars without door handles and all the rest of it. <\/p>\n This observation has been made in the past, too, in very similar language by a character at the end of 1989 comedy\/sci-fi Bill & Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure. Winging his way through an oral history report<\/a> in front of the whole school, a blonde jock in a Letterman jacket says: \u201cEverything is different, but the same. Things are more moderner than before. Bigger, and yet smaller. It\u2019s computers\u2026\u201d He trails off here because he doesn\u2019t know what the fuck he\u2019s saying, but the pause adds a prophetic weight to his words. They linger in the air for a few seconds, balancing on a highwire between stupidity and visionary, charged with a collective naivety and anticipation and desire for reasoning, connection, answers… It\u2019s computers<\/em>\u2026 And then he goes: \u201cSAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!!!!\u201d Same as it ever was.<\/p>\n To read Emma\u2019s recommendations, exclusive interviews and more,\u00a0s<\/em><\/strong>ign up to the Huck culture newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Emma Garland is a freelance writer and former digital editor of Huck. Follow her on Bluesky<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Buy your copy of Huck 81 here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/em>