Thank you for spending a few moments with this ever-curious Placid-Adventurer as I share my thoughts and explorations…. remember follow The Placid Adventurer page on Facebook.

  • AI=Absolute Insanity

    One of the most significant desires of an individual, is the freedom to make our own choices. Sometimes they are good; sometimes they are not. They can bring us great success or kick us to the curb, but we can own them and we can grow from both our personal successes and failures. That is the beauty of being human. It is also a condition that allows those around us to choose to respond with compassion and empathy.

    Imagine, if you will, a world in which we are expected to abdicate all judgement and commonsense to a bunch of chips and wires in a data center somewhere. Imagine, if you will, having time to spend all your time pursuing the things you love, but having no place to pursue them because we have sacrificed huge tracts of land to expansive and expensive Data Centers. Imagine, if you will, what the work of people like Leonardo DaVinci or Salvador Dali might have been reduced to if Artificial Intelligence had been at the reins, rather than their own freedoms to think and experiment with their personal talents, curiosity, and drive to push the envelopes that defined knowledge and art.

    As humans, do we simply attach ourselves to feeding tubes and hand the controls for our nourishment to Artificial Intelligence? Do we really think that humans will thrive once personal responsibility becomes redundant (after all, the root of that word is “person”)? Frankly, I see no ultimate need for humanity to exist once we have given control to an entity that has been given the tools and information to excavate and explore. Theoretically, if we build machines that are capable of building machines and that automatically learn from their mistakes, they will also develop the innate capacity to serve their own needs. Indeed, eventually robotics can program themselves to go where no man has gone before to bring back the fuels that are required for their own perpetuity.

    As humans, we can accept that there will always be a next “best solution.” Indeed, we are driven to search. We look for cures for diseases, and mechanical solutions to enhance or repair the defects and damages that plague us as people. We expect that there will be a learning curve, and we enjoy the developments in technology, music, literature, and even the simple victories such as helping one another learn a new task through shared experience. We can revel in the simple joys of working together to rescue one another in times of hardship. We can take shared pride in learning that through our independent efforts to plant flowers and care for our own patches of land, we have increased the Monarch Butterfly population. Does that matter to a machine?

    There may still be miles to go before we “AI” ourselves out of existence, but the temptation to close the gap, seems pervasive to me! As I write this little blog, I have a page open on my other screen that discusses Artificial Intelligence “Security Risks.” In the brief body of the message are at least eleven “rookie” mistakes (perhaps a human wrote that copy). In many of the likenesses that are “all the rage” on social media we can spot extra appendages and flaws that AI doesn’t recognize and thus crop out when adapting peoples’ photos into cute little cartoons and caricatures. Photographers are quite adept at recognizing plagiarized renditions of their captured subjects, and many of us are simply getting bored with the AI trends that are more and more pervasive. As I have been writing today, I have even found myself getting annoyed with spell check, which is about the most prehistoric version of AI that is out there.

    The Writing Prompt today was about “Do I need a Break, and if so; from what?” Well, I’m getting ready to search for a new job that will spare my old bones and muscles from some physical abuse. As soon as I began my online search, AI helped me decide to enjoy a day of writing instead. I hope it has brought you some entertainment as well.

    Sincerely,

    Tamsyn, the Placid-Adventurer

  • Paper or Plastic…and Learning

    I have not written for a while; not for lack of ideas, but for lack of time, but this morning I read something that moved me enough to do so.

    I was pretty wild when I graduated from High School, and I chose the “hands on” approach to adulthood. That has very little to do with this post, aside from the fact that I did not go to college until middle age. As that nontraditional learner with a couple of kids, I attained a pair of bachelor’s degrees; one in teaching, and another in business. I share that, only in the hope that it may lend some credibility to what follows here.

    I read an article this morning, that was published in Sweden about a year ago, which has moved me to speak out. I am interested to learn how others feel on the subject, so I have also posted to my social media. I am also including the link to the article below my content.

    Today, I read an article in which the Swedish Government announced a decision to shift the in-school experience back to “paper and pencil” and as a 21st century grandparent, I totally support a return to this traditional approach! It is not only a choice I would advocate for in schools; It is a choice I wish parents would make at home as well.

    How about if we, as consumers, stop buying those plastic electronic devices for our youngest humans, and allow them the joy of having a story read by a parent or grandparent at the end of the day. How about we ALL give the “game controllers” a break and bring back family game night?

    In my youth, I spent hours playing Monopoly with my cousins and trying to beat my Nana at Yahtzee! I can promise you that I have never had as much fun interacting with my tablet or cellphone (and now that AI is taking over, my stress and anxiety levels are increasing exponentially)! As an added bonus I heard history lessons and anecdotal stories, from my elders that have wrought laughter and tears, and given me a sense of events that shaped my own family’s history.

    Even as I type this, I am so vividly overwhelmed by the memories, that I have had to pause occasionally for a bit of laughter (and a few tearful moments). I wish I could remember stuff I learned when I went to college (in middle-age) as tangibly as those real and present moments and activities.

    Government investing in more reading time and less screen time – Government.se

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