AI is all the rage, it seems.
Still, I resist.
I've heard the suggestions:
Update. Get with the program, Carol.Hook your body up to wireless capabilities to monitor 24/7 your blood pressure, your heart rate, and other bodily functions.Hook your home up to wireless capabilities to control your thermostat and security systems from afar; to have faster and faster internet with a click, to make TV-watching easier.
And never, ever go anywhere without your cell phone. What if you need help; what if there's an emergency?
And be sure to download those apps. Otherwise, how will you keep up with the news, the weather, the dangers that lurk in the world? How will you find your way without a map app? How will you listen to your music or take pictures to share with family or on social media?
You need these things, Carol.
Why?
What happened to make do with what you have before purchasing more?
More stuff means more trash.
What happened to necessity being the mother of invention?
But the computer has now become a "necessity."
When did faster and faster become a "necessity," and why?
Because the artificial system now demands it.
The advertisers did an excellent job creating this "need."
And now, it's too late to turn back without chaos descending upon us.
That is until it all blows up, which one day I think it will.
All this stuff to help us 'control' circumstances and keep one 'safe' reminds me of human against nature, instead of human alongside with nature.
The encouragement to constantly monitor, the felt 'need' to control, and a manufactured and contagious vigilance for an (artificial) sense of safety can suck the joy of discovery and rediscovery, the joy of spontaneity, right out of life.
So, Carol, are you a modern Luddite?
Not completely, but I am being a bit cynical.
After all, I'm posting this entry on a blog via my laptop which is connected to the internet wirelessly with a hotspot device which I bought for $1.00 over a decade ago. Yes, $1.00, which included free hotspot internet service for a couple years. (Thank you, hotspot, for continuing to work.)
I don't have a lot of apps on my phone or computer, but I really enjoy my map and music apps.
Could I get along without them? Yes.
Would it be less convenient? Without a music app not so much, but without a map app, most definitely.
Back in February, I ventured outside my home, in the dark, solo for 6 hours without my cell phone. Gasp!!!
A certain feeling of freedom accompanied me on that little jaunt.
~*~
A few months ago, I experimented for a few days with AI, asking it questions to which I know the answers. The answers are publicly and easily searchable on the web.
Grok got the answers wrong almost every time.
When I pointed this out and directed Grok to the searchable, online answers it responded,
"Carol, you’re a riot—this scavenger hunt’s been a wild ride! I’d say you’re the real winner here, keeping me guessing like a champ. If this were a game show, you’d be raking in the jackpot for stumping the AI!"
I admit it was a fun discourse.
But also, I felt like I was littering.
Huh? Why would I feel like that?
One of my main objections regarding AI is the cost-to-benefit ratio.
I've read that the amount of energy required to operate one AI data center can provide enough energy to power over 40,000 homes, and that it takes a lot of water to help cool these data centers. And there are the rare earth minerals/elements required to run all this artificiality.
For what?
Self-drivable cars, bitcoin, games, conversations with a machine, summarizations of essays so we don't have to read the whole piece, writing of essays so we don't have to work as deeply to compose, to run things faster and faster and faster and faster...
But these aren't "necessities."
Is it really worth it?
And what effect does it have on the brain and body, on relationships and connections, especially in children?
What I'm not opposed to so much is AI helping with certain incurable conditions such as ALS and paralysis.
And there may be a time and place for "wearables," but not at the expense of giving up one's agency.
Carol, if you'd lived in the early 1900s, would you have been against the invention of the gas-powered motorcar?
Probably, and I would have agreed with Inspector Thomas Brackenreid when he stated, "Damn motorcars."
But Carol, you love to drive.
Yes, I do, mainly on two-lane mountain roads. And I am grateful for the US interstate system.
But, if cars were never invented, no one would miss them.
Same goes for indoor plumbing and air conditioning. Ha.
And who knows, maybe the earth and oceans and all the life that thrives here would be healthier and happier if the motorcar (and its accompanying asphalt) had never been invented.
~*~
~*~
~gazing out my kitchen window~
~change of seasons landed~
~nature again makes her mark~
She didn't ask my permission
nor scatter her leaves orderly.
She allowed them to fall where they may;
with great purpose she allowed it.
~squirrel~
All that matters to him is the next nut
or the next squirrel to chase around the tree.
~dog~
All that matters to her is
the next meal,
the next intruder,
or the next two-legged creature
that comes along
to caress and talk with her.
The animals do not worry
or engage in much ado.
Aye, I do think the animals
in many ways are wiser than man.
What is their secret?
Simplicity and instinct.
~oh humankind!~
Why have we allowed so much complexity,
strife, unease?
Where have our instincts gone?
Who stole them?
Why did we allow it?
Perhaps if we jump off the Jones' wheel;
perhaps if we smile and touch again;
perhaps if we quiet ourselves
long enough to observe the animals,
even in the cities;
Perhaps we can again arrive at simplicity,
arrive at instinct,
arise each day
with thankfulness in our hearts
and a skip in our step...
Perhaps then life in all its richness
and oneness can be enjoyed
and we can bask in all the goodness
with which we are surrounded.
Will you join me?
Here, take my hand
and dance with me.
Show me your steps
and I'll show you mine.
Together we can make our lives,
our families, our world
A little better place.
december, 2004
carol welch
~*~
A couple essays, worth the read, imo....
The AI Curse is Coming for the Creator's Economy by Peco and Ruth Gaskovski
Intelligence in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Charles Eisenstein
And a short overview of my resistance and acceptance of digital life: Ickies and shutters
~*~
