I guess that by reading this you are probably turned off already. “We will all be replaced by AI!” “After the internet AI is the next big thing!” “We will be able to explore better medicine through AI and by the way you do not learn to code anymore because AI will do that alone in future”

Maybe I’m too old for these promises, but I’m more sceptic than others here.
No doubt, I also like working with AI while still having my hands on the wheel. Letting it create content, strictly questioning it and never hitting the “use this” button without tripple checking. Still far too many hallucinations.

We use our brains less and we become lazy

What really worries me with AI is, that people may simply not use enough of their brains anymore and their real creativity. As shown in the article of MIT https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.08872, people simply do question AI less, the brain activity reduces. We are in AI consuming mode. We simple take what AI gives to us and it trains our brains to be lazy as it seems to no longer work hard.

Everything feels the sames

By using AI too often I also have the feeling that I get more and more content in all areas that feels as if it was a redo or repeat of something I have already experiences. It’s movies or videos that seem to have the same plot all over the place, music that feels replaceable and some news or text also feels the same.

Does it become true if AI tells me so?

We often use AI to get to know new information or even ask it to create content for us. Because it is so easy we even use it for work and create huge amounts of texts, presentations that are blown up and authored by AI.
As described in the article from MIT shows us that we loose ownership of what we do (my opinion… up t the point of not understanding the topic presented or being able to explain it to someone).
We have to remember that AI simply works on probability terms. the more often AI reads something the more likely it will be that it will present it to us as a valid output.

“Let’s flood the web with our own truth and give it to AI and it may become the common truth. Or even better… let AI reinforce it’s believes by consuming it’s own products, by analyzing AI generated texts.”

I think that will one day be one of the threats to Ai, that simple misinformation will become a truth because AI hands it too us so often.

Big tech tells us that we need AI to improve, that it will make us more efficient. I think on the surface it will make us more efficient, but we will also do much more superficial, it will give us less creativity and will let is do more of the same. I hope someone can show me something where AI gives us real innovation. I do think it will stay because humans love convenience and the genie is out of the bottle and we’ll not get it back in. But I do not believe it to solve our problems.

maybe a time for a pause for thought…

The middle age Manhattan as you could call it lies in the nice area of that most people associate Tuscany. Due to the many towers, that used to be, just like today a sign of power and wealth, the town could be compared with Manhattan.

It is a nice small town with not too much to see. A lot of tourist busses come here and the small place is flooded with tourist groups from one to the other hour. To my recollection mainly American tourists.

On the Piazza della Cisterna, one of the main piazzas there are two ice cream shops claiming to sell the world’s best ice cream and to be honest I would not be able to judge. Only one of them the Gelateria Dondoli really won some world champion ships. I was not aware that there even were world champion chips for ice cream making. It was crowded, but we were lucky that we did not get there with one of the busses as just some hours later the queues were really long.

One of the bigger attractions is the “Torture Museum” which we skipped. By the way there are even two of them and I do not know which one is the better one. I had bin in San Gimignano nearly 30 years ago on an exchange and I can say the ice cream shop was where it is today, but the torture museum apparently moved.

I again found some really nice door knockers. I have som many now, that I could do some kind of collage with it.

We arrived quite late and it was really unbearably hot again and we could only get back to our vacation home and get into the pool.

Some of the shops were still closed and after a first walk through the streets we had a quick café at the main piazza (Piazza dei Priori). We bought the Voltera card for the whole family which was only 30€ and we climbed the tower of the Palazzo dei Priori which gives you a really nice view over the town as well as the

surrounding Tuscany landscape. We counted the stairs with the kids and it was around 155 steps and it was quite an effort, especially in the warmth of the morning heat. One hint. The last few steps are very narrow and even for me it was quite tight with a small daypack on my back.

As it was included, we went to see the old roman theater, which you can also see very well from the panorama street just above the theater, if you are not that interested. Volterra was already inhabited by the Etruscans which gives you an impression of Volterra’s 2500 year history.

When we came back to the Piazza dei Priori the Art market had opened and the kids could do an alabaster workshop there. The kids really liked to work with the stone and the lady running the workshop was very nice. While doing the workshop they asked my kids whether they would be o.k. with taking a picture. And so they ended up holing a band with Italian national colours. Some officials cut the band and now my kids are in some Italian newspaper.

The next stop would then be San Gimignano.

We parked a bit up the hill at the “Posto Auto Gelsomino Garden” and walked all the way down to the Porta Romana, one of the old city wall entrances towards the southwest of the city center.
I had planned to go through the Giardino di Boboli, but at first, I was a bit shocked how much they were asking for. In the end we did it anyway and waked through the garden which was hillier than I expected. We passed the fountain dell’ Oceano and walked up the hill, where you have a really good view on the Palazzo Pitti and the city center. By that time I must commit the kids already had enough of sight-seeing as it was quite warm already. One recommendation that all parents already know. Do not take your kids to historic cities as they will not appreciate the places you get them to see. But to be honest, it was the same for me when I was at their age.

We walked down to the palazzo and I was really impressed by the size of the palazzo. Louis the 16^th of France could not have asked for more. It is really big! We could not get the kids interested in going into the palazzo, so we went on via the Ponte Vecchio. I totally forgot that the whole bridge was full of jewelry shops of the unaffordable type. The bridge is really nice and as a part time gamer and a fan of the “Assassines Creed” series I loved to look at all the buildings from the 2^nd part of the series that plays in Toscany.

We walked to the plaza della Signoria, where the Palazzo Vecchio is and saw all the nice renaissance statues. The most famous being the “David” statue directly at the front of the palazzo. I love the renaissance architecture and the time in general. When I think about the Medici I on the other hand think there are some parallels with Russian oligarchs and that

is something that I do not like that much though. All these fights between the families and the concentration of money with some families in the region.
We then went to the “Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” and looked at the impressive building from outside. The queue was already so long and standing in the high noon heat was not an option for the kids and us as patens. The mood would have dropped abysmally.

Even from outside the building is astonishing. The green and white marble as well as the delicate intarsia, in the past as well as today, must have impressed the people who looked at it.

We went to get some lunch a few hundred meters away from the cattedrale and the prices also got very acceptable again. Same was true for the ice cream, as the ice cream places on the main tourist streets to the dome was as high as 4 EUR per ball of ice cream. We really liked the ice cream that is why I put the name here (RivaReno Gelato Firenze).

We also went to look at some of the shops and bough some small things as souvenirs and I even got a leather wallet. I guess I paid too much, but I was o.k. with the price.

Heading back to the car was quite a drag as the heat was unbearably already and the hill we went down, we now had to get back up.

An other day that was unbearably hot we went to Lucca. Because of the high buildings you still get a decent amount of share and therefore its o.k. to go there even if it is so hot. If you want a nice and relaxing stay you better go early in the morning or maybe in the late evenings. Lucca is the hometown of several famous musicians. The most famous being Puccini who was born there in 1858.Because of the heat we only went to some places that we wanted to do with the kids. Like the “Torre Guinigi“ which is one of the last remaining towers of Lucca. Like in San Gimignano there were many towers, but they all got shortened or completely removed in the 16^th century.

Our kids liked to climb the tower even though it was a tough climb in the heat and we got rewarded with a very nice view from the top. Luckily the tower has trees on its top and so you have some shade when you enjoy the view from the top onto the town. There is not too much space up there though and if there are too many people it gets easily crowded. We paid 16€ for the entire family to go up which was quite a lot, but on a holiday, you accept quite some expensed that you would not back home.

We then went to the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro which is the other important place that Lucca is famous for. Lots of restaurants and nice shops around there.

On the way to the piazza, I found these door knockers which I liked quite a lot. People somehow had more sense for art back in the days. Or maybe different art. I like it! And especially with an unusual thing like a door knocker which you do not need any more these days. Now we have doorbells which are unspectacular and boring. By the way do we even need doorbells anymore or do we take the phone to get someone to open the door these days. Well I do not know. I still use the doorbell, but there is definitively no place for door knockers.

So cutting a long trip short we finally arrived after 12 hours of driving an a short stay in Basel in “Capannori” which is close to Lucca in Tuscany.

We knew it would get hot down there and you will probably get annoyed by the sentence “it was unbearably hot” if you further read though the next couple of blog entries, but that is the way it is. It was hot! During the days here it was up to 36°C (96°F) and you can only bare this with a swimming pool which we fortunately had on the grounds.

To get to the house you needed to drive up the hill on a rather bumpy path and the first few days I was a bit worried, that our car could get damaged if we drove there too often. But now I’m trained so well, that I manage quite well to dive on that path.

When I work the urge to eat properly is strongly reduced in comparison to just hanging around or watching TV. The fact that I try to stay busy really is really good for me and for getting my things done. Maybe something positive out of the starvation I’m in *laught*.

Well, it is kind of ridiculous that we must discipline ourselves on not taking in too many calories and are constantly tempted to eat in our society and other people must starve on this planet. We definitively do not have the problem to feed the world population, we have to problem to fairly provide for everyone and maybe also giving everybody good calories. Maybe another time I pick up that topic again, but for I’ll leave it to this statement.

We are currently renovating our basement / cellar so that I get my little office space. Something I’m very much looking forward to once it is done. I’m planning on having a nice wooden floor as I despise vinyl, which is currently popular. I prefer mor natural material like wood. Once it is done I will poste a picture here.

Next week will be my first normal working week in 2022 which I’m looking forward to as I kind of enjoy my current job.

Now the new year. Well well well ….

As I have gained some weight over the Christmas days, Silvester and the birthdays, which are quite numerous in the Family in that time, I decided to support my wive with her special diet. She has done that diet before twice to loos her weight that she gained through our two kids. She has lost about 14kg over 6 weeks and she only regained 4 kg over the last year.Seeing the positive effect I decided to make it easier for her to do the diet and to loos some weight myself, too.

It’s a special diet that is very protein based diet, but not the usual ones that are in the internet. It’s a special diet elaborated by an acquaintance of my wive and it so far seams to be quite good. With the diet I currently only ear around 850 to 900 calories and after 3 weeks of doing this I have a Phase where you basically have to count calories, but you can ear anything you like. I wonder though, whether I would stop eating much sugar anymore. The other thing that made me gain my pounds was that I ate portions that were too big. I’m a fast eater and so the feeling of not being hungry anymore sometimes just needs longer than my food intake. I basically have to slow down with eating and also eat a bit healthier than before.
The diet is also a bit of a self experiment on wether it will make me healthier if I eat less sugar and loose weight. I think I have never eaten healthier in my life. So I might bore you with some of these insights in the next couple of weeks.

As it is very close to the mine we took a trip also to the Koenigssee. It is a very picturesque place in the last corner of the German Alps. The lake is not too big, but apparently two hundred meters deep. We took the long boat trip the the last stop where you can get off and walk to the Obersee wich is an even nicer lake. If you have enough time you could even walk to a waterfall which falls about four hundred meters. We did not do it though as we were too late for that.
The church St. Bartholomae which is the stop in the middle of the lake was closed. We ate in the restaurant there though as it was time to feed the family…The return trip takes quite some time so if you also plan to do the trim then you should take your time.
On the way to St. Bartolomae the boat stops at the famous echo wall and the guide plays a little tune against the rock wall and an echo returns.The trip with the boat was not appreciated by the kids as we adults did. The nice peace and quiet as well as the countryside could not beat the mine for the kids. We loved the Koenigssee and especially the Obersee.

The next day the weather was so nice that we decided to go to the Chiemsee and the landlady of our holiday flat recommended the beach bath in Uebersee. So we finally did that. The kids and I walked the two miles to the beach and found a nice spot to rest. The way along the lake has a nice biking track all around the lake. The tour all around the lake is 60km though and maybe nothing for a family with kids that is untrained for these tours. In Uebersee there is also a cool beach bar directly next to the lake where you can have drinks and watch the fantastic sunset.
Well we were at the lake bath and it is perfect for families with kids. You have all the facilities you need and the water is not very deep for a long time. My kids saw people on standup paddling surfboards and found out that one could rent them just around the corner. So we did that for some hours and they absolutely loved it.
First it was a bit like a paddling boat for them. Later when I was together with them we went further out into the lake and we used the board like a little pontoon to jump into the water. They could have done this all day. We had a really great time… and when it comes to myself…. also a sunburn.