Before the AI age, many people thought pharmacists were an obvious target for automation. After all, programmers could write software to check prescriptions for dangerous drug interactions without even needing AI.

Ironically, AI is now threatening the jobs of those very programmers, along with mathematicians, while pharmacists are still employed.

So why not have an annual Pharmacist Bragging Day, when pharmacists celebrate outlasting the people who were supposed to automate their jobs?

Of course, the celebration might be short-lived. Pharmacists could eventually be replaced by AI and robotics too.

Maybe that's part of the tradition: each year, pharmacists celebrate surviving another year while wondering whether this will be their last.

What if we created a hybrid reality racing platform where people could race digital twins of their actual cars through realistic virtual versions of major cities around the world?

Unlike conventional racing games, your virtual car's performance would be based on the measured performance of your real car, including any legal modifications you've made.

Here's how it could work:

1. Garage testing: Take your car to a certified garage, where mechanics inspect it for safety and measure its performance. These measurements are uploaded to the racing platform.
2. Optional racetrack testing: A professional driver tests your car on a closed racetrack to collect more accurate acceleration, braking, and handling data. The garage inspection would be required first to reduce the professional driver's risk.
3. Worldwide virtual racing: Race your digital twin against other people's actual cars on realistic virtual streets in any major city, whether that's New York, Tokyo, London, Toronto, or somewhere else. Use a racing simulator, steering wheel, or VR headset.
4. Real-world upgrades: Modify your actual car, have it retested, and see how those changes affect its performance in virtual races.

Local garages and racetracks could become certification centers, creating new business opportunities. Car enthusiasts could compete in neighborhood leagues, city championships, and international tournaments, all without transporting their cars.

The key is that you're not racing some generic video game car. You're racing your own car, with its actual measured capabilities, against other people's real cars, on streets anywhere in the world.

This could preserve much of the competition, car customization, rivalry, and community that make street racing attractive, without putting the public at risk.

Could something like this make illegal street racing largely obsolete?

People walking on the tracks for a year will flatten them enough so that they are smooth enough for biking with care, for most of the lenght. Where there are roots and stones, black ground lifted from middle and sides with a shovel can round them out to achieve smoothness.

Many places have 20 cm wide black ground lines suitable for walking and biking, who knows how old, for all we know maybe 1000 or 10000 years old. More can be made.

50 cm starts to be fit for a non-flying wheeled ground drone, pushed cart and temporarily walking a bike comfortably.

Being below tree leaves protects from UV and heat.

Somewhere even a 100 km long trail can be useful for fun and transport, regardless if there is scenery or old forest anywhere and even if terrain is full of trash.

Also, driving a vehicle once on a snowy place makes a path that is easier to walk.

Like, I feel like "background activity" could mean anything. If Spotify tells me it uses 3% battery, I have no idea if that's normal or if it's being weird. There should be some kind of baseline comparison so you can actually tell which apps are being little vampires.