Greetings Members and Readers,
We are pondering the times and various symbols of our times in reference to how and why we work on things that are to make our lives easier or more comfortable. There seems to be no safety valve present to prevent an over extension of such activity.
The trends in product are moving more and more to demonstrate that we might believe that less personal movement is good.
Sport shoes that are easier to put on our feet. No bending, just slip in and slip off. It seems much to do about nothing, except for a few that already have problems bending over to put on said shoes and tie the laces.
On a larger stage, we are working on computer programs that will or can become our friend, a trusted friend deemed necessary because we have isolated ourselves in several ways away from real, flawed people that we used to enjoy as friends.
AI really does not do a thing for me. Having a program ( an app ) write an article for me is really an empty endeavor. My writing, good or bad, is a product of ME, mine, always applied to paper after thoughtful processes and effort to convey facts, fun, fiction, teaching or act as a food for thought. If we adapt and adopt an app to write these ideas for us, then we become deemed unnecessary and I like being necessary, a contributor of sorts and simultaneously, responsible for what I write. So far, there is no accountability in AI, no one to challenge, compliment or blame for a bad writing.
AI is just one more opportunity to turn responsibility over to something that is innate, empty, that causes less effort to use, apply or produce. So, in this case — no brain movement and with the slip on shoes, no bending over. In both, barely any participation to cause a result.
We are hellbent to save effort, calories, or time when down the road all we will have is a stiff body, a stagnant mind and abundant time to ponder nothing. We won’t wash our car, we won’t even drive our car, we won’t chose a menu or prepare the foods that are automatically sent to our home via a 4 bladed helicopter that was manufactured and flown by a computer. What will we do with ourselves? Even the code necessary to accomplish all these things will be written by another computer.
The work, the challenges, the planning and the effort, those things that keep us healthy, moving and motivated will one day become absent.
The rewards and trials of writing a thought provoking article, making a good Hollywood movie, or manicuring one’s lawn is as much about the doing as are the results. We will find that the results will be more pleasing with hands on effort.
Going fishing is not just about fish. We had a great time on the water, shared some time with a friend or spouse, got some sun or got rained on or both, boat ran great and at the end to the day we had bright red skin, shriveled fingers, memories of rough water, a crowded boat launch and an empty fish cooler. All in all, it was still a very successful, satisfying day and we are challenged by the fish God’s to try again.
And then there is the question, what if these gizmos begin to dictate to us just after we have lost any ability to move and think.
What if AI decides that fishing is an extravagant method to gather food and is no longer determined a viable or expedient activity when bio-fish can be grown in a big chemical mixture and delivered to your place by drone in a third of the time.
We’d better watch out what we wish for — we might get it at a time when we have forgotten how to fish or put on real shoes with laces.
It is possible that this brave new world will not be for the brave but only for the atrophied and soon helpless that will become victims of what often is perceived today as progress.
TPP
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