December 13, 2025

AI Could Never Sort Laundry:  well not properly anyway

I don’t imagine that AI will ever be tasked with sorting through the season’s change of clothes.  How could it decide which items are good enough to be worn again for another year? How could it make a decision between Goodwill or the scrap heap?  How could it decide that a certain sweater is the perfect weight for a cool evening and so should be kept handy in the front of the closet, with New England weather being what it is.

Departing with clothes that have a history is not always easy.  If we’ve worn a piece long enough, it begins to have a story to tell about all the experiences we have been through together.  It may no longer fit, and it may not have fit for several years, but one always remains hopeful about the magical thinking of someday.  And so, to the maybe pile it goes, the place where things go until we have the force of will to cast them to their destiny.

This task is especially challenging when it comes to the sorting of children’s clothes.  It would be an easy enough decision if it were not for the smell of childhood still upon them and the memories associated with puddles and snowbanks and piles of fall leaves.  Maybe a friend’s child or grandchild would like them …  worn spots and all.  And so, to the maybe pile they go. Maybe, someday I will have the heart to part with them, but it does not have to be today. 

AI would surely be more ruthless and calculating with these decisions.  AI would never ever have a maybe pile about clothes or anything, but just imagine what that would look like if it did.