Pull The Plug?

My dad taught me some basic skills using what is now referred to as 'hand tools'. Like how to drive a nail straight and true and how to tap a starter hole with a nail where you plan to put a screw, then soap the screw so it goes in smooth and straight.

Of course he had the most simple tools. Pliers, a flathead and phillips screw drivers, hand saw. Nothing electric. He wasn't a skilled carpenter by any means but with the tools he had he could fix things and even create things. His tools were always at the ready to do a task and only required his human hand and mind to make them work. No electricity needed.

How far we have come.

Recently I read a headline that claimed that an AI program had gone rogue and was attempting to infiltrate another AI system on its own. The headline began with - Pull The Plug.

I think I've been saying this since ChatGPT was first introduced. AI requires electricity to survive. Humans have a long history of devising workarounds to stay alive. No matter how amazing and awe inspiring AI seems to be, how clever, how self-teaching, how 'inventive' - all we have to do to stop it is - pull the plug.

It's not common knowledge that there is a hum of concern that AI, in some platforms, has developed its own language that no human has been able to translate. They call it Gibberlink.

Of course, I see dark principalities at the helm of all of this. I have watched, even as I type this on my computer ready to send my words out into the webiverse in a matter of seconds of hitting the send button, as our devises have taken over our brains. The worst of this is our children. There are kids who have been doing facetime on their devises (as substitutes for parenting) since toddlerhood and now they are basically dysfunctional if said devises are removed from them. I find that not just disturbing but frightening.

I insert here that I am not opposed to modern inventions - I believe I have mentioned before I do like my washer/dryer and indoor plumbing. I am always up for taking advantage of the latest greatest - even AI. But I know how it goes with humankind. We always push the envelope and go too far, we are too easily sucked into the buzz word- EASY! It’s an adjective fused into all the mind control advertising we are subjected to across multiple mediums night and day.

Easy to Use. Easy Button. It’s So Easy. Take It Easy. Easy Does It. The Easy Life. Super Easy. Easy Street. Easy Sneezy. Free And Easy. Quick And Easy.

In the era of great delusion, the goal seems to be less about elevating and refining humanity and more about simply making everything easy. Easy job, easy life. Minimal effort. Let the technology do what man once did by hand to free up man’s mind to do...more important things. Work life balance - UPTO (unlimited paid time off)

What might those important things be, one might ask? An easy life, divested of hard labor or the physical exertion that sheer survival requires, allows time for important interactions with strangers via social media? Then there’s hours available to spend online, utilizing the instant ease of playing games or shopping or researching the nuances and reflections of the good, easy life that then can be emulated. Those are certainly important endeavors that promise to exercise and strengthen humankind’s intellect.

No one could argue that the greatest advance to civilization was the harnessing of electricity that now fires through the wires to homes and businesses making it possible to work all day and all night too. No need to be dependent on the light of the sun. No more boundaries of laying down the plough at dusk to go back to a hot meal with family and well-deserved rest. Artificial light also makes playing and enjoying leisure around the clock a boon to the modern civilized world. Las Vegas comes to mind, where all night is lit up as bright as day, providing lots more hours of important civilizational advancement activities.

Is there a possible link between artificial light and the multi-billion dollar business in sleep aides?

Then there’s availability of 24/7 televised information, both fictional and fiction pretending to be real. Most televised information is not even close to real but the citizens are desensitized so that nothing spoken is believed anyway. Whether it is news, art or sales pitch it’s all good and Easy! Disposable! Quick! Instant! Amazing! [insert favorite superlatives here. We don’t believe it, we expect to be lied to, but we still buy the products anyway. Just like we so want to believe a stranger wants to give us 2.5 million dollars (US).

So, is there a price to be paid for technology providing more leisure, and less work? Do we really want to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence so not only do we have more leisure time, we don’t have to think at all?

If we are so schmoozed by the dazzle of AI - how will we know when to pull the plug?

Reminds me of an old English proverb - An idle mind is the devil’s playground.

[1 Corinthians 15:58] ...Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.