" just about every recording is at your finger tip" -- absolutely and I've benefited enormously. But something is different. Not trying to weigh it all out, just giving some air to the losing side.
I miss scarcity
This is not a complaint. Or, if it is a complaint, it's half-aimed at me. Mostly this is a reflection.
In the old days, I got to know music really well -- in great detail, sonically, musically, reading all the credits, the liner notes, etc. A friend would have an album I didn't, so I'd go to his house to listen. We'd talk about the music. We'd talk about how album sides hung together or didn't. We were thrilled by double albums.
Now, a torrent of information is everywhere. I listen alone, often to a single song, often not listening to anything over and over again.
You will tell me, "That's your choice." I'd half agree. It's like agreeing that "It's my choice not to live off the electrical grid."
As I read and teach about AI, I am learning that our tools often prioritize speed and information glut. It seems, initially, like a cornucopia but it becomes a wash of "content." I must admit, I'm losing my talent for managing all this content, and I'm losing my love for it. And it's making me into a different person, somewhat, and I am not so sure I want to be that person. End of reflection.
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Very true, things are different. If you really love a process and it disappears, you feel a loss. Like in the 70’s and 80’s going to the library or being a librarian. If you love the process... enjoy the chase from card catalog to book to the knowledge... then there is a loss. If however, if that process is getting in the way of your real goal... moving forward on your current theory, the need for the next references to substantiate or refute your thesis, then you are joyful when the process goes away and you get to the goal. Much like sailing vs power boating... sailers are in it for the process... power boaters for getting there (OK, not perfect). For me, the move to streaming has been completely liberating and done away with wasted time... time buying, evaluating, storing, cleaning... etc. To me, I want the gold... the experience of listening. I’m like that in everything. I attribute my personal successes... corporate executive, mountain climber... bicycling cross country for thousands of mile, reading thousands of books, rafting the Grand Canyon... etc. to minimizing stuff that doesn’t have value to me so I could do the high impact stuff. So, I always avoided spending too much time doing dishes, mundane tasks... etc. But that is me.
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I love your cartoon! One's brain rusts from non-use. AI, IMHO is the best way to commit intellectual suicide. AI's great for finding facts quite quickly (I do this all the time) but for subjective stuff, not so much. All you get is the mother of all consensuses. I note that some folks admit to even using AI for composition. Educated folks, so they say. Kids in school must just love it. No wonder our school system is going to hell in a hand basket! I still enjoy wallowing in music that I have grown to love as well as in my search for music that I missed the first time. For me 'discovery' is a BIG deal. |
The problem is not A.I. We can use it as a tool for curing cancer or searching about Raimon Lull logic etc... The problem is what we dont use anymore rust indeed ... The problem is our yet immature social fabric...
Who will read a book and takes the time if A.I. can write one book resuming 100 others books in seconds ? A child will be inspired to work on learning reading and writing speaking with A.I. ? I doubt it will be the case for most child... Thinking is linked to writing and reading but writing and reading in a specific joyful but also "painful" learned way which cannot be taught no more now when even universities are obsolete... "let there be content" : https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/ai-cut-loose-what-could-go-wrong/
On a personal note i am happy since i own a computer. Why? Because it was impossible for my budget to buy books and music before computer. At 28 i had enough books whose value was the price of a house.but when you study books are not small price...The same goes for music... I married and with children suffered in my thirst for knowledge . But with the computer i could obtain everything. The happiest day of my life after my childs birth. Then i am no Luddite... I love technology... This must be clear... But we are not ready at all, our social fabric either, to integrate A.I. It is auto-destructive... Sure i dont miss scarcity at all... I can study any matter at will ...And i know how to pick the essential ( it is what we learn learning how to write and read) I miss common sense... Too much novelty at a too greater speed kill common sense especially if we cannot integrate novelty... A.I. is not a mere novelty, it is not even a tool. It is an engine of social destruction. Some inventions are born with a very bad timing... But with a computer i learned maths and many other things like acoustics etc . i casted astrological charts also and i then learned there is no "bad timing" for world event... Then....
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For me, AI has been an incredible tool for learning. It has been incredibly effectively used in some schools. But it is a new paradigm. You can’t look at it the same way. I have implemented cutting edge software all my life. The hardest thing is to get folks to stop doing things the same way and use the tools. So, for instance I implemented global systems to run the whole company (SAP). Everyone wants to input the same data in a screen that look the same instead of standing back and let the system do it and just deal with exceptions. With AI, it is being used incredibly effectively in education. But letting it assess the levels of kids and then customize a learning program in terms they are interested in to teach them. AI enables one to learn much faster... to explore the world of knowledge... kind of like streaming opens up the world of music if you choose to use it. It requires new approaches... not just doing the same old thing.
I agree that AI touches language, which means it touches the bios–logos relation itself. Also that this is different from steam engines and telegraphs and that if captured by oligarchic interests, AI becomes a meaning-extraction machine, and society fragments.
But it does not follow that: “AI inevitably severs human agency.”
The decisive variable is: Whether humans continue to own the interpretive act. Meaning is not produced by symbols. Meaning is produced by embodied beings who care. A prompt does not make one an artist. But neither does a paintbrush.
The question is whether the human intention remains primary. If we lose that, yes—Titanic analogy holds. If we keep it, AI becomes more like a prosthesis of imagination.
A Closing Line Back to Your Groucho Marx Quote
…“A metaphor is a phone call between two objects.”
Yes… and the real question is not whether the phone exists.
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