Optimising Inefficiency

The Antidote to AI

Picture: Bathhouse reflection, Glasgow. 2008

You are not a washing machine but I am worried you think you are.

I respect their focus and purpose. They are clean and efficient. I am chaotic and tardy. Humans so easily lose sight of their target but the machines know their credentials and boast. “I am A+, energy efficient. Dolphin friendly”.

Not so long ago, the people of Glasgow walked from their tenement flats to a local bathhouse to do their laundry, share gossip and laugh. The steamie was a gathering place where people could wash themselves and their clothes. There is a great play that shows it beautifully. It was noisy, inefficient and, eh, steamy. For all the pain though it was a human place.

You can see the buildings today, like this one by the city’s Trongate. A steamie before it was turned into a white-walled art gallery (The Modern Institute) opposite an artisan chocolate shop.