If it sounds too good to be true, it is. 🧞♂️ The cost is human autonomy
We fought a war 250 years ago to win our independence. For what? Well, so we could do what we want to and define our own future. How is that working out?
What have we done with that independence; with that future?
Let's take a look at a couple examples of things we really don't need to learn. The first couple are silly. The next one is one that I asked when I was in school. The others are coming up now.
Why do I have to learn to walk? I have you, always pushing me around in a stroller.
What should I learn to ride a bike? I already know how to walk.
Why should I learn to write with a pen? I'm learning how to type on a keyboard. Nobody will be writing on paper in the future.
Why should I learn to type? I can just use speech to text on my phone and it will type everything for me. (With lots of errors, by the way)
Why should I put all my inventory in a computer when I can easily keep a list of what I have in stock on paper? Entering everything into the computer is a ton of work.
- Why should I learn to program? I just tell AI what I need the app to do and it will write the program?
So we choose not to learn things because we do not have to, and AI is searching the internet for us, putting together spreadsheets for us, writing e-books for us, and basically doing everything, including programming robots in the factories where we used to work.
What happens when AI is doing everything that humans used to be able to do? I think we will be addicted to the ease AI and robots give us. Will we inadvertently eliminate our own abilities over time. Will we become unnecessary in the end? That is called being dependent on something you do not own.
I think we are on a self-imposed road to Idiocracy, one like the movie. One thing we have always owned is our mind and the skills we obtained and stored in it.
Some call it laziness, and it is. But I see it as humanity giving way to the easy way every time. As a result, society is not bothering to do things that they should do in the course of every day life, like helping someone up when they fall, or even doing dishes, cleaning the house, fixing things when they're broken.
Regarding learning to write, I learned how around the time computers came on the scene, right as I was starting to use those skills. I never did get very good at it. That got worse over time as I wrote things infrequently. I also did take the option of putting my inventory into a computer and it saved me a lot of time and energy. It was great for making my orders for me. I don't know which was more work, setting it up or doing the orders myself without it. Both were hard tasks.
I see my own kids looking for the easiest way to get things done and not caring much about the result. They're missing a well earned dopamine influx which is normal after a long, hard-fought project gets done, trading that for a dopamine influx from watching somebody else, in a 12-second video, showing the end result of their many, many tries to throw that basketball off a balcony and have it bounce right into the net. They never see the "trial and error" phase of effort and accomplishment.
If you watch enough videos that do not show the hard work or practice it takes to accomplish these "impossible feats" then you start to think things should go that way on your first go. In other words, if you do not know about the work that goes into an accomplishment, you may not be able to make said accomplishment. I see a lot of attempts to do something, and when the attempt fails, look for someone who knows how to do it.
AI will be worse than video clips. It will beat you at its first try. I have not yet taken the plunge yet. I have not even tried AI. I already know how to write a program from scratch, create spreadsheets that work for business purpose, and I could easily delegate some of my work load to AI and then double check it. That is the key, being able to check if the job is done right. If you have never done it, whatever "it" is, then you will not know if it is done correctly.
I also question the wisdom of using AI because those conversations with AI are not secure. Anyone on the server side can read them and the AI learns from your input. That is what AI does, it learns from everything on the internet and presents people with what it has learned. What if someone asks it a question and it answers them with your ideas?
In conclusion, I am not sure that it is wise to always take the easy way out using tech. Not long ago, if someone was approached with an unbelievable opportunity to get something for free or cheap, people would say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!" I think we are losing, or have lost, our ability to see when something seems too good to be true and to look that gift horse in the mouth, as we should.
People have not heeded the warnings of the past, and have taken the proverbial candy from the stranger in a van who may just might take them down the road, depriving them of family and friends that they used to know. Your thoughts?