The guest speaker for the morning of October 11 was our very own member, John Handby. John started his working life in Whitehall developing policy issues primarily in the Department of Health and the Treasury. He subsequently worked for many large national and international corporations directing large scale change-based programmes.

Artificial intelligence or AI is becoming a hot topic and there is a lot of speculation about what the future may look like. We have all seen dystopian Hollywood movies about humanoid robots taking control of our lives. Is this pure fancy or a looming crisis for mankind?

AI promises many improvements in the way we live our lives. The world as we know it is set to change dramatically. Expect a whole new swathe of developments in health care, education, the work environment, leisure, and the world around us generally.

We are on a steep learning curve of discovery with governments and entrepreneurs around the world looking to exploit the new possibilities. The pace of change is set to become electrifying in the coming years and it is impossible to predict what life will look like with any degree of certainty in the decades ahead.

As algorithmic based AI enables automation of many areas of office work some see the prospect of mass unemployment and/or greater divisions between a super elite managing successful companies in this new era and a technologically irrelevant underclass – and all the implications this has for society.

Privacy as we knew it is a thing of the past. Our trails on the internet enable vast amounts of information to be collected on all of us and the coming ‘internet of things’ will extend this still further in dramatic ways. Not only is information being used to influence our actions and market to us, increasingly it is also being used by governments to restrict our freedoms.

As well as benefits there are dangers as Russian, and China seek to undermine western democracies. Putin is quoted as saying “Whoever controls AI controls the world”.

Vaga Probus is a mens group that meets twice a month in Ross. Visitors are welcome, please contact the Secretary on 01452 831026 for details. Our website is vaga-probus-ross.org.uk.

Few can be unmoved by the sight of row upon row of pristine white gravestones marking the final resting place of the many young men who gave their lives in the World Wars. However, many are unaware of the adverse public reaction to the original plans of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) for war cemeteries with general disquiet over the decision not to repatriate the dead.

The IWGC was founded by Sir Fabian Ware in 1917. Under a Royal Charter it was given responsibility for burying and commemorating the dead and missing soldiers of the First World War across the Empire. The IWGC was also charged with permanently maintaining the cemeteries. It was a mammoth task. From the outset, the IWGC had to tread carefully with representatives from the Dominions and the bereaved in Britain. Equality of treatment was a goal.

One crucial decision concerned the design of the headstone. Ultimately, a simple design was adopted allowing for the commemoration of all faiths and nationalities. MacDonald Gill created a unique typeface for all the headstone lettering. The IWGC felt that there should also be a focal point in its larger cemeteries to tie all the graves together as one shared sacrifice.

This plain oblong feature in Portland stone became known as the “The Stone of Remembrance”. The Church of England expressed concern it was too secular so the IWGC also devised a ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ specifically for cemeteries where Christian graves predominated. It would become a model for many local war memorials across the UK.