Stuart 
It's the late 18th century. Have you seen the new mechanical automaton that can play chess and beat experts? Nobody really understands how it works - it uses lots of clever gears and cogs - but the technology of mechanical automatons can only improve so imagine what mechanical automatons will be able to do in just a few years. Add them to everything. We should worry about mechanical automatons becoming self-aware and destroying humanity. Make sure to invest in my mechanical automaton startup.
Shh. Don't look in the right-hand section of the cabinet. Don't worry about us deskilling people to lower wages and extract rents. Don't complain about us using the label "mechanical automaton" as a catch-all term for anything vaguely connected to machinery. Of course it is OK for us to suggest that the new mechanical wrangle we are selling you is now "super intelligent" as it is basically the same technology as the chess playing automaton.
Hello it's the late 19th century here. Have you heard about all the advancements in techniques for contacting the dead? Some very clever and important people are investing in it. There have been some remarkable results with séances and they'll only improve with time. Invest in my start-up to get dead people doing intellectual work for you. The dead don't need to be paid to live (although we'll charge an ongoing service fee). Existing workers can retrain as "séance engineers" to prompt the dead.
Peter Coles 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️@slowe Whenever I'm at a Faculty meeting I feel we should all hold hands and try to contact the living.
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@telescoper @slowe some toots deserve to be hung on the wall as embroidered samplers…