SMALL TALK 4

“’lectricity is amazing, isn’t it Tammy,” said Arwen to her sister Tamzin. “I mean it makes so many things work, like the TV and the washing machine and the oven and the dishwasher and the lights and…”

“Yep,” broke in Tamzin before her sister had finished, “and what’s more it’s invisible!”

“And dangerous,” added Arwen. “Mummy always says NEVER stick anything in a socket or touch a live wire and stuff.”

“Yeh – ‘twould be a shocking experience!” grinned Tamzin.

“Makes the radio work, too,” said Arwen. “Did you know that that device used to be called a ‘wireless’? Not a well thought out name if you ask me.”

“Why so?” responded Tamzin.

“Well, for a start if you took a wireless apart you would find it full of wires going hither and thither. Wire-less it wasn’t. And what’s more, think of all those miles and miles of wires bringing electricity from the power station all the way to that wire-less. ‘Wireless’ was a joke!”

“See what you mean,” said Tamzin. “Come to think of it, ‘wireless’ would be a much better name for what we have now, the radio. For a start if you take that apart you’d find it full of solid-state circuitry. Barely a wire in sight. And what’s more, it runs on a battery. Don’t need to be connected to a zillion miles of ‘lectric cables.”

“Yeh. These adults do keep getting thing wrong. Life must be very confusing for them.”

“Yeh. It’s probably why they’re working so hard on developing artificial intelligence. Got to get a helping hand from somewhere,” observed Tamzin.

“Yeh, well we don’t need it though, do we Tammy,” concluded Arwen.

“Nah,” said Tamzin.

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