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As more and more of the business of life is conducted electronically, one might be tempted to pause and consider the advisability of this trend. I believe that in most cases, the abandonment or minimization of in-person contact is detrimental to the future health of mankind.
Our species has a deep need for community, and the online world is a cheap substitute for the real item. Think of the small town or urban neighborhood of yesteryear. Its beating heart is Main Street, the primary thoroughfare of commerce, where flesh-and-blood humans interact to meet each other’s basic needs. They exchange physical money for physical goods; a value-for-value transaction occurs. Meanwhile, the humans speak to each other, cementing the bonds of community. Even the most trivial small talk helps to fulfill this function. This is one reason why using cash is so important. Granted, our fiat currency is a pale derivative, far removed from real money. Nevertheless, some-thing at least is being exchanged. Cash is a key vestige of meaningful human interaction in commerce. This is gone when you interract with a screen, avoiding the direct transfer of an object of value to the person with whom the transaction is made (if a person is even present). Returning now to the small town/urban neighborhood model: Expanding outward from the commerce of Main Street, we see schools, churches, playgrounds, parks, stadiums, courts, and the private offices of physicians. All of these are the scene of face-to-face encounters, most involving (gasp) actual physical contact. Schools, universities, and the learning of trades can never complete their mission in an online environment. Sure, via a computer screen a person can accumulate facts, but not craft. Craftsmanship, including in the white-collar world, can be acquired only from live human interaction. One must see the trade being practised, and receive on-the-spot feedback for one’s own tentative efforts. This is why true experts almost always had a tutor, mentor, master, or coach to guide them in the early days, and even throughout their careers. Let us take a step back from this later stage of education, and consider child-rearing. The creation of offspring is obviously a physical, in-person act, but so is proper upbringing. Once again, only live human role models can do the job. Integrity, character, honesty, etc. cannot be transmitted on line. My heart breaks when I see a parent giving a child, often a very small one, a screen of some kind to play with. I wonder whether this phenomenon contributes to the plague of autism-like behavior among our youth. We lament the rise of loneliness and alienation in our society. The causes are many and varied, but part of the story is surely the factors cited above. Of all the manifestations of the dehumanized society, one that is emblematic, in my mind, is “working from home.” Very few individuals possess the maturity and intelligence to work effectively in this manner. For the vast majority, it is the adult equivalent of playing hooky. This computer-age farce contributes to the angst that sits on us like a heavy fog. The infamous lockdowns, along with other totalitarian measures, led to the normalization of “working” from home. The bonds of human society were degraded. Small business was dealt a blow. Feelings of alienation were exacerbated. The building of real community, from out of the miasma that is contemporary Western civilization, would require the curtailment of lawlessness on our city streets. It also would require the restoration of freedom of association. I will cover this concept in a separate post.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage. Despite the widespread enthusiasm, I believe that it is part of our current overblown hi-tech hysteria, and in the end will prove to be counterproductive.
First, a clarification: I am not referring to the cutting-edge research aimed at mimicking and exceeding actual human intelligence, a venture which is a horror story unto itself. Rather, the subject of this post is the current manifestation of AI, along with expected near-future applications based on an expansion of the same processes. The AI that we are now experiencing is essentially a wider and deeper exploitation of data, which enables increased automation. There is no “intelligence” involved, only pushing the boundaries of existing computer technology. Considering our society’s fascination with digital technology, the situation could hardly be otherwise. Few people seem to care that the world around us is decaying by the minute; infrastructure is crumbling while new buildings and products are increasingly ugly and flimsy. But our screens are sharper than ever, and we have apps that enable us to graphically represent any fantasy. Oh, and the stock market is booming, thanks to this great whiz-bang tech stuff. So it’s all good. AI will accelerate the ongoing degeneration of intellect. Instead of an internet search that brings you to a well-composed essay, or even a mediocre article in Encyclopedia Britannica, you are fed a hodgepodge of data. By aggregating diverse sources into a virtual trash compactor, with no real intelligence to guide the process, the result is drastic reduction of quality, as well as disaggregation of mind. One could make the case that everything AI touches, turns to dreck. The term artificial intelligence doesn’t quite cover it; I would instead call this transformation natural stupidity. Most brain work can be automated, if quality is thrown out the window. If there is no need for refinement, subtlety, or beauty, what purpose does human intervention serve? A world in which AI has seeped into every nook and cranny will make Cuban communism look like a luxury brand. Here is a flow chart showing the march of progress: Highly intelligent people (fantastic goods and services, as late as 1965) >> Reasonably intelligent people (acceptable goods and services, 1970s and 80s) >> Mediocrities and midwits (mixed bag of quality, 1990-2010) >> Morons (you are here) >> AI If you want a brutal illustration, consider the medical industry. Even without AI, the “provider” stares into his computer screen, rarely interacting physically with the patient. Might as well go full AI and dispense with the intermediary, there’s not much difference at this point. In fact, automated medical treatment has already begun. When doctors are finally eliminated, the medical public relations machine will be bragging about the cost savings. A curious repercussion of AI is the anticipated use of electricity. How are the sagging U.S. and European power grids supposed to handle the load of these enormous data centers? This new energy hog will aggravate the effects of those other dubious exploits, Bitcoin mining and electric vehicles. All this while the grid is being degraded by the Climate-Industrial Complex. I have heard that the data centers require huge amounts of water to cool off the massive arrays of computers. And we haven’t even discussed the expected rise in unemployment, and the potential for reinforcement of new psy-ops by the Deep State. If you want a picture of the future, imagine being on the phone, trapped in an automated, never-ending customer service loop—forever. But don’t worry everyone, just go back to your phones, all is well. Disregard everything I said. Copy and paste the title of this post into your search engine, and AI will tell you what to think. |
Dystopian literatureWelcome to the blog! While you're here, check out the six dystopian novels by Gary Wolf. His latest is The Cubist Supremacy. 
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