I am the grandfather of two Torontonian girls. Do I like Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs? I love it… as long as

Sir, as a father of two Torontonians, and grandfather of other two Torontonians, it is of course with much interest I read Leslie Hook’s “Toronto offers Alphabet downtown land to practice designs for cities of future” October 19.

I do love that "Quayside" project… subject to:

It shoots for the most intelligent artificial intelligence and the smartest robots, as I would hate my granddaughters to have to surround themselves with half-baked artificial intelligence and 2nd class robots.

It allows for some here-you-can-totally-lose-yourself free from artificial recognition space to my granddaughters, in order for them to be able to find themselves, and all is not Big-Brother-watches you space.

It provides some absolutely-nothing-spots that guarantee my granddaughters to be able to experience, quite often, that boredom so essential for creativity and thinking.

It does not leave in its wake a huge Torontonian debt to be serviced by the grandchildren of my granddaughters.

Alphabet splits, at least 50% 50%, with Toronto, all profits that could be generated by all patents resulting from inventions and experiences obtained during the Sidewalk Labs project.

PS. And of course as long as it duly considers the possibility or rising water levels.

@PerKurowski

And we must also stop regulators, like those in the Basel Committee, from being so damn creative

Sir, I refer to Lucy Kellaway’s “The plague of compulsory creativity may be dying out” September 12.

She is absolutely right in what she there argues, but she could have added power to her arguments by identifying when empowering creativity, can lead to some truly dangerous creativity, and cause huge disasters.

Think for instance of the bank regulators in the Basel Committee. Based on the very creative theorem that what is ex ante perceived as risky, is riskier for the bank systems than what is perceived as safe, they created the risk weighted capital requirements for banks; and with that they seriously distorted the allocation of credit to the real economy,

And now the safe havens are becoming dangerously overpopulated, while all the risky bays, where SMEs and entrepreneurs reside, are equally dangerous being underexplored.

@PerKurowski ©

The remedy for the creative industries is already in their name.

Sir Stephen Garrett writes that “Piracy is threatening the survival of creative industries” June 15 because governments have not been cooperative enough blocking piracy on the web. But, since there are many that hold that the creative industries are themselves a major threat to creativity that might not be entirely such a bad thing. That some jobs are lost while the adjustments to the new world order are made? Could be, but there’s were real creativity comes in. Anyhow no one would dare to order the wheels off the luggage in order to safeguard the jobs of porters… or would they?