Raynine
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2023
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If I go back to about the year 2000, it would have been difficult for me to predict the complete inversion of reality that exists today. I didn’t even have a computer until 2002 and it was still dial-up at first. I got my news from newspapers and radio. The first computer in my home was a novelty item, slow and cumbersome like a Model T on a muddy road before there were highways. Today my computer is a command module in all areas, news, politics, entertainment, and research. In the time humans have been on Earth, what has passed since the year 2000 is the blink of an eye. What started as a box with a screen that looked like an old analog TV set is now a sleek, flat window to the world in real time. My computer went from a kite to a modern jet airliner in a quarter century, and that is a scary prospect.
In 2000 I still had a boxy cell phone with a little antenna that was pulled up when needed. Later that year I got one that flipped open like Captain Kirk’s Star Trek communication gadget. No camera, no touch screen, just a cute little flipper that made calls. Texting existed but was not in wide use then. Today my smartphone is synced to my computer. It has GPS capability that can trace my movements if I take it with me. Remember that all this civilizational change has occurred in a nanosecond of human existence. All the technology I had in the year 2000 was still under my control as a physical artifact like a fancy toaster or a microwave oven. That is not true today, and I wonder if I am in control of anything now. In other words, am I consciously and intelligently using this new tech, particularly AI enhanced versions, or am I being absorbed into it slowly but surely?
I am aware of something profound because I have lived experience comparing realities, before and after. Millions on this planet did not follow my path, and many who did have forgotten where they came from because they surrendered to something they may not fully comprehend. This change from tool technology to AI is abrupt and monumental. Could we lose our collective memories of how to make things work to survive like those that came before us?
Is this technological advance a new and wonderful thing for us or is it the lid on Pandora’s Box?
In 2000 I still had a boxy cell phone with a little antenna that was pulled up when needed. Later that year I got one that flipped open like Captain Kirk’s Star Trek communication gadget. No camera, no touch screen, just a cute little flipper that made calls. Texting existed but was not in wide use then. Today my smartphone is synced to my computer. It has GPS capability that can trace my movements if I take it with me. Remember that all this civilizational change has occurred in a nanosecond of human existence. All the technology I had in the year 2000 was still under my control as a physical artifact like a fancy toaster or a microwave oven. That is not true today, and I wonder if I am in control of anything now. In other words, am I consciously and intelligently using this new tech, particularly AI enhanced versions, or am I being absorbed into it slowly but surely?
I am aware of something profound because I have lived experience comparing realities, before and after. Millions on this planet did not follow my path, and many who did have forgotten where they came from because they surrendered to something they may not fully comprehend. This change from tool technology to AI is abrupt and monumental. Could we lose our collective memories of how to make things work to survive like those that came before us?
Is this technological advance a new and wonderful thing for us or is it the lid on Pandora’s Box?
