Someone walks towards a front door carrying a parcel. Before their finger reaches the bell, the homeowner may already know they are there. A camera has detected movement, software has classified the shape as a person, a notification has travelled through the internet to a phone several miles away and video is ready to stream. The visitor presses the button. Instead of ringing a simple electrical chime inside the house, the doorbell effectively makes a video call. The homeowne

At 7:14 on a Friday morning, a salary arrives in a bank account. Nothing dramatic happens. There is no armoured vehicle, no bundle of notes and no physical movement that the account holder can see. A notification may appear on a phone. The balance changes from £642.18 to £4,917.63. Within hours, some of it will disappear again: mortgage, electricity, council tax, childcare, Netflix, insurance, a transfer into savings and perhaps £40 spent in a pub that evening. To the person

A small amount of wine is poured into a glass. Someone holds it towards the light, tilts it slightly, swirls it around, puts their nose into the glass, smells, takes a sip, moves the liquid around their mouth and sometimes spits it into a container. To somebody walking past, the ritual can look somewhere between sophisticated and faintly ridiculous. Why not simply drink the wine and decide whether you like it? Because a professional wine tasting is trying to do something much