Six days at EXPO 2020

After 6 days at EXPO 2020, I have visited the pavilions of 53 of the 192 different states here. Barely more than a quarter.

I say “states” not “countries” because some regions are not recognized as separate countries everywhere. For example, Palestine is not formally recognized as a sovereign nation by the USA but is very much recognized by UAE.

They claim it takes three days to see the Fair. It would take serious stamina to see everything in three days. You would have to arrive at 9 am every day and stay until they close at 1 am. Even then I don’t think it would be possible. Many pavilions have lines that are longer than two hours just to enter.

I know that I am prejudiced but I think USA had the best pavilion. It was the only exhibit with a moving ride. You stood on something similar to the conveyer belts at airport luggage carousels. It moved you along a twisting path. With my vertigo, I was very challenged! Had to get help to dismount without falling. Before and after the ride they had elaborate multimedia displays. The ride was narrated by Kamala Harris.

My least favorite pavilion was the UK pavilion. They had each guest enter one “positive” word using their cell phone. Then an AI computer added words to create one line in “the longest poem ever created at a World’s Fair”. The new phrase was displayed on one of the hundreds of large screen on the huge wall. Then resulting poem didn’t make any sense and didn’t rhyme.

In 1969, I wrote a program, which I named POET. It took words written on punch cards and created a poem. I sent its best poems to my girlfriend. It must have worked because she married me!

in half a century, computer input has progressed from punch cards to cell phones. But the poetry written by the UK AI system hasn’t improved noticeably from what I created as a college student. I’m not impressed!

Tomorrow I fly to India.

I will post some photos later but that will take a while. Don’t have my full computer system here.