Good Things To Use Computers For
So, against my general intentions with this blog as a fun way to keep in touch with folks and have something nice to look back on every once in a while, I feel it is necessary to address an issue I've been asked about a couple of times recently.
People are worried, or have many misconceptions, about what is happening in tech with Artificial Intelligence (AI). I'll be brief - when you hear the term "AI" bandied about - it broadly means one of two things:
- Generative AI: ChatGPT, large language models, image/video generators
- Everything else, much of which we used to call "machine learning" or even "applied statistics"
The second one can produce real things that people use and even help with stuff like predicting weather/climate conditions. The first one is rapidly turning the internet into useless trash entirely full of misinformation while melting the planet with its power/water consumption requirements. Both are used by bad actors to ethically, morally, and legally launder - in the sense of money laundering - their decision making processes through a machine, an accountability sink.
Generative AI is currently battering Wikipedia with hallucinations and making every existing social media platform unusable. A total of one (1) positive thing may come from this spectacular waste of human ingenuity and effort. And said thing is yet another prediction by the same cyberpunk authors that were talking about "cyberspace" in like 1978 [[1]] and presaging Google Earth.
In a lot of those books, the first several "internets" are broken by idiots, bots, and charlatans and have to be rebuilt or undergo massive changes. These authors were not the optimists of the previous generation, who largely saw technology as a way of empowering and liberating humanity in an ever upward trajectory:
Even today [William] Gibson says he is puzzled by older readers who approach him at book signings to thank him for inspiring them to pursue a career in tech.“They’d read a book in which there didn’t actually seem to be any middle class left and in which no characters had employment. They were all criminal freelancers of one sort or another. So, it was always quite mysterious to me.”
Arguably, the internet we have right now is a different thing entirely from the one from like 2000, and not just in size/popularity. This blog is more of a throwback to the 200x internet in the sense it isn't a series of Facebook posts or whatever.
In any case, absent a mindblowing breakthrough, the current GenAI stuff is probably doomed given its insane costs and low value propositions [[2]]. Ideally this happens before it becomes entrenched in denying asylum applications and cutting benefits to six year olds with cerebral palsy.
For more detail on this, I would encourage folks to read Molly White, Ed Zitron, and Dan Davies.
Anyway, palate cleanser.
I've mentioned how different the seasons here feel, in that there are four of them. But the stranger part for me is the variability. A season in Seattle [[3]] or Phoenix [[4]] is consistent - to say nothing of Los Angeles [[5]]. Here, in whatever season, there are storms, dry sunny days, rain, fog, etc; possibly all in the same week.
And when you get a good day as the summer/fall quickly passes, you must make use of it. Parc Jerry has some excellent places to lounge and is just a 15min walk away.
I probably talk enough about French in these posts so I'll just say that the goal of actually understanding what people are saying all the time well within reach and it's by the grace of great professors (particularly this most recent one) and the fact so many French words basically exist in English and merely need to be paired with an outrageous accent.
Bunny is now mostly blind, deaf, and has always lacked the intelligence to adapt to such conditions. However, in the battle of will and wits that we have - where I try to keep her in the kitchen where she is less likely to run her face into things - she is unquestionably the victor:
No, three chairs doesn't work any better. Ideally, by the time y'all read this, she will be sporting a pair of "doggles" - dog goggles - which hopefully (do something) alleviate the need for the cone of shame.
[[1]]: William Gibson in particular is interesting. I don't think anyone can predict the future, but his conceptualization of the "Jackpot" - a series of calamities resulting from climate change, ecological degradation, and kleptocracy capitalism - strikes me as certainly more likely than any possible future any political party is currently talking about
[[2]]: It's notable that ChatGPT has been zero help while learning French and Duolingo has been getting much less useful as they have (apparently) integrated more AI slop into their app
[[3]]: Near perfect three-month summers and drizzling grey for the remainder
[[4]]: From Too Hot to Polluted
[[5]]: Car
