editor's blog
Subscribe Now

The world wins, again

We work in an environment where we regularly say that we using technology to try to change the world for the better. Then the world turns around and shows you that it is far stronger than you think. It always faintly amuses me that a massive airliner can be seriously delayed by a head wind, but this ceases to be funny when the wind system is called Katrina, Sandy or the latest, Pam.

The world turned round and gave us another slap in the face last Thursday – not on the scale of Pam but still a nasty reminder that we are not yet anywhere close to being in control. Terry Pratchett died. It wasn’t unexpected; he had been suffering from a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, posterior cortical atrophy, for several years. There is a cliché that people “battle” a disease. In Terry’s case this was true. He fought with an immense rage both the disease and the laws that would not allow him to choose the time and place of his death and “…die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the ‘Brompton cocktail’ some helpful medic could supply. And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with Death.”

One of Terry’s fascinations was technology. He was a voracious user of computers and the Internet, and many of the Discworld novels demonstrated the way in which society reacts to the impact of science and technology. This was at the heart of his last published work “Steam Up”, written well after the disease had begun to grip him. In it the invention of the railway causes a wide range of reactions and political shenanigans, just as with the proposals for high speed railways in California and Britain.

Technology is paying tribute. Many websites will now contain “GNU Terry Pratchett”. It is a very nerdy in-joke, and you can read about it here: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/redditors-are-making-sure-terry-pratchetts-name-lives-on-forever–lJjYpijRag

We don’t know what causes the various forms of Alzheimer’s, we have difficulty diagnosing it, we can’t cure it, and we don’t even know how to alleviate it, except in minor ways for some forms of the disease. To quote Terry again “as far as we know the only way to be sure of not developing it is to die young”.

There is work going on, around the world, on using technology to make early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. This will allow training for the sufferer to cope with some of the issues, but there is still a long way to go. For the rest of us, we have to acknowledge the world’s power, but still continue working to try to make it a better place.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
May 25, 2023
Register only once to get access to all Cadence on-demand webinars. Unstructured meshing can be automated for much of the mesh generation process, saving significant engineering time and cost. However, controlling numerical errors resulting from the discrete mesh requires ada...
May 24, 2023
Accelerate vision transformer models and convolutional neural networks for AI vision systems with the ARC NPX6 NPU IP, the best processor for edge AI devices. The post Designing Smarter Edge AI Devices with the Award-Winning Synopsys ARC NPX6 NPU IP appeared first on New Hor...
May 8, 2023
If you are planning on traveling to Turkey in the not-so-distant future, then I have a favor to ask....

featured video

Synopsys Solution for RTL to Signoff Power Analysis

Sponsored by Synopsys

Synopsys’ industry-leading power analysis solution built on PrimePower technology that enables early RTL exploration, low power implementation and power signoff for design of energy-efficient SoCs.

Learn more about Synopsys’ Energy-Efficient SoCs Solutions

featured contest

Join the AI Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge

Sponsored by Efabless

Get your AI-generated design manufactured ($9,750 value)! Enter the E-fabless open-source silicon design challenge. Use generative AI to create Verilog from natural language prompts, then implement your design using the Efabless chipIgnite platform - including an SoC template (Caravel) providing rapid chip-level integration, and an open-source RTL-to-GDS digital design flow (OpenLane). The winner gets their design manufactured by eFabless. Hurry, though - deadline is June 2!

Click here to enter!

featured chalk talk

Quick Connect IoT
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Renesas
Rapid prototyping is a vital first element to get your next IoT design into the real world. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Brad Rex from Renesas and Amelia Dalton examine Renesas’ new Quick Connect IoT out of the box IoT solution that combines well-defined API and middleware with certified module solutions to make rapid prototyping faster and easier than ever before. They also investigate how the Quick Connect IoT integrated software can help MCUs, sensors and connectivity devices communicate effectively and how you can get started using Quick-Connect IoT for your next IoT design.
Oct 31, 2022
25,902 views