Have You Ever Thought: The Revolution Is Underway And AI Is Leading It?
AI lets us see a bigger picture. It may reveal hidden truths. It can shorten our work time and almost certainly will empower us to empower our selves.
For every Barron’s, Forbes, or WSJ “think piece” quoting a competitive group of CEOs saying “Artificial intelligence will eliminate ___ jobs by ___,” there are thousands of people out there using today’s AI, right now — to benefit themselves.
AI really is changing the world: it’s happening right now.
These changes may not benefit me personally, but I’m sure they will benefit my daughter and her children. They will help my nieces and their children. They will help my students and their children.
AI is giving each of us the opportunity to see things more clearly and fully. Every day it’s giving people more insight and agency: over their finances, job choices, creative opportunities, and many other aspects of life.
2024 U.S. election: most boring and unimportant in history
I keep telling Bruce, “There really aren’t many Trump 2024 stickers out there.” We have seen zero Trump boats so far this year. We saw phalanxes of Trump trucks and flotillas of Trump boats as soon as we moved to SW Florida at the end of March 2020.
How is this possible! Former President Trump’s story is far wilder than his out-there celebri-President forebear Teddy Roosevelt. Mr. Trump was just indicted for Federal crimes for the third time — today! Holy smokes!
And nobody is talking much about it around here. I see little about this online as well.
Instead, online operatives are promoting the great economy and opportunities under President Biden.
I just read where you can buy 30,000 Twitter (X) followers for $249.95. I saw an ad for 10,000 “likes” on Twitter (and a certain number on Medium) for $300. A commenter noted, “I used this program and my account was terminated.”
One of my online friends, a Manhattan-based artist and brilliant wag, said, “Trump will be elected from a jail cell!”
I laughed. Maybe so!
Official Society sends a message that if you don’t think these these goings-on are more important than your own life, you are an Un-American, immoral, contemptible loser who deserves to live in a bush or under an overpass or boulder for the rest of your life.
Whenever people decide they’re not that hot on voting and don’t particularly support a certain candidate, some people are certain to announce it is the “death knell” for our Democracy (which we do not have). The “death knell” for our Republic.
But I wonder, as I start to use Mr. AI to partner with myself, if these trends are not —
The ringing bell signaling a better future
When Karl Benz invented and Henry Ford commercialized the automobile, they could not envision the internal combustion engine-powered car and truck economy we live in today. It’s everything, for better or worse (and in the case of the environment we need to live in — likely, worse).
Ford is widely credited for initiating the 40-hour workweek and paying a living wage. He said that he wanted to pay workers at the Ford factory enough to buy the product they were making.
What a concept!
This type of thinking really was advanced for its day. Even today, many don’t see value in Ford’s thinking or actions. We call these people “Republicans” or “Libertarians.” No matter what they are called —
They’re not exactly original thinkers.
It doesn’t matter what Karl or Henry thought …
I think from time to time about why apocalyptic stories are so popular.
The apocalyptic story is like a child’s nightmare about something that happened at school. These stories help people heal from the constant wounds delivered by the self-destructive, deeply unhealthy addicts whom we allow to direct our lives.
But we need to heal more, and I think the omnipresence of this type of story needs to fade.
A healthy person who understands who they are in relation to others: friend, mother, father, child, niece, nephew, cousin, neighbor, town member …
Where does “employee” or “worker” come on this list?
I digress — I’m Amy Sterling Casil.
Let’s put it this way: billionaires are consumed by severe hoarding disorder. Some of them actually do hoard objects just like the ones we commonly revile and mock on television shows like Hoarders. Billionaires have plenty of money so they can easily pay guides like the ICD and DSM-5 to specifically exclude “money” from the hoarding/OCD diagnostic criteria.
This is one tiny shard-like example of how this type of person (billionaire, religious leader, politician, CEO, or just plain home-based abuser) uses their “power” to make you think, say, or do what they believe most-benefits them. In whatever way they want. Billionaires want money (obviously) but many also crave power and fame.
We are like the desiccated cat corpse in the hoarder house
In this process — all of the rest of us — really do have a bit in common with the pitiful dessicated cat corpses which are sometimes found in the hoarder house.
One day the hoarder, who had collected the cat with no particular interest in its well-being and health, forgot about the cat and did not feed or water it. After about four days, the cat died.
But before that, the hoarder didn’t pet the cat. They didn’t do much other than throw out food. They didn’t keep a clean litter box. They didn’t let it roam freely and do the things the cat enjoyed. They trapped the cat because they wanted it and it fed their hoarding disorder to collect things and creatures (or money or power or control).
We are not cats. It would seem right now, that those of us who are non-abusive humans, will last about 75 years before we die.
We might last a lot longer — and much of that could be up to us.
You can bet that absolutely none of the healthy centenarians who have been found in Blue Zones would be much concerned about:
Their credit score
Car inspection
Breakfast calorie count
Light bill
Neighbor’s hedge and lawn
Golf handicap
Or the latest indictment of Donald Trump.
The people of the future will be like Blue Zone centenarians
So how will AI help?
Think of it this way. How did you ever really learn who you were? I know who I am. I got this way through a series of events that no person should ever have to go through.
“That which does not kill you makes you stronger.”
That’s like saying, “Really — the bubonic plague was great! Everyone who survived was much stronger.”
It’s not just this phrase that seems to indicate suffering is really great and beneficial.
If we’re talking about athletics, practice, or learning a skill: yes — difficulty and challenge are important.
Working 40 hours a week for 45 to 50 years to make somebody else’s life easy? No, sorry — that’s not important. It’s important to them: not you.
It’s the attitude, the thought process that keeps us doing the same thing for four decades — most of us. By some objective measures, the best of us are entrapped in this cycle.
How can AI help us? It already is …
AI, by taking much of the routine out of so many jobs in so many professions, is going to help all of us to think, reflect, and make the small daily changes we need to better our selves and our lives.
It’s going to give us time.
Time to consider what we are doing and who we are and what we want to be.
Time we need to really think, and really understand: our selves and those we are close to and love.
Time to understand and decide the actions we need to take on our own behalf to build the lives that we want to live. That we need. We require.
By our nature and nurture, the overwhelming majority of we 8 billion humans are not born, raised up, and do not desire to harm, hate, steal from or ruin the lives of others.
AI is going to show each of us and help each of us to have the lives that we deserve.
If there is no longer a need to live the way so many of our forebears did: back-breaking physical labor or soul-killing office work or all the forms in-between —
What amazing lives could we all live —
And here’s a corollary: my life, the precious one to me — isn’t the same as yours. And neither is anybody else’s.
These bad ones are the ones who tell you to be concerned about the lives of others who are different from yourself. This is probably almost the only voice you have ever heard.
What will your voice say when you speak for yourself without fear?
There’s a lot of ways to get to these places. The important thing about AI is that, like the automobile, like the internet, AI is going to give us more freedom and more time.
But once somebody else isn’t telling you what to like, what to do and when to do it, and how to conduct your life?
Wow. The majority of people fear that and that is why things haven’t totally changed: already.
AI’s gonna take my job?
Amazing!