Reading Stephen Buranyi’s article (Rise of the racist robots, G2, 8 August) reminded me of a discussion 30 years ago with a sixth-form class (following a viewing of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) on whether daily contact with computers would make us more machine-like. “No,” said one girl: “Since humans contaminate everything they come in contact with, we’ll end up by infecting machines with our irrationalities. The problem’s not AI; rather, artificial unintelligence.” Percipient students are always ahead of their time.
John MacInerney
London
• Much of the anger directed at Justin Gatlin has been because he deprived Usain Bolt of his gold medal (Boos ring out at London stadium as gold goes to twice-banned sprinter, not Bolt, 7 August). But he didn’t. If Gatlin had not been there, Bolt would still have lost. He came third. In all the press and TV commentary, Christian Coleman, who came second, was hardly mentioned.
Joseph Webber
Haywards Heath, West Sussex
• Has Donald Trump been listening to the theme song for The Wire, which contains the line “he’s got the fire and the fury, at his command” (Trump warns North Korea of ‘fire and fury’, 9 August)? The next line is “but there’s no need to worry, just hold on to Jesus’ hand”. There’s an idea.
Wendy Walker
Penrith, Cumbria
• “John Major’s civic conservatism” that Matthew d’Ancona mentions (Opinion, 7 August), would that be the cones hotline, or “back to basics”?
Les Bright
Exeter, Devon
• Now you have made Codeword solvers happy (Letters, 8 August), could you do the same for Pieceword solvers? The clues are far too easy for Guardian readers.
Ishvara d’Angelo
Totnes, Devon
• Has the stream of letters about ejaculation reached its climax (Letters, 8 August) or are there lots more to come?
Chris Baker
Willington, Derbyshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
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