Unfortunately, you completely avoid any discussion of the environmental degradation which is already occurring from the need to create even larger data-centers which use up crucial natural resources - water, land, non-renewable energy, etc. There is a historical analog which continues to the present with the pollution and the same degradation due to the industrial revolution.
I think you owe your readers as clear a discussion of these negative issues as you do the positive. Note: I’ve been in the educational IT side of things for four decades, and there is great concern about our students using AI as a substitute for their own cogitation and work. My school has the wherewithal to be proactive about this, but many are not.
Exactly spot on with the data center BS. I agree with your sumation on all the downsides, including data center sprawl, pollution, water glutony, power gobling, toxicity to environments, lack of concern of mental health and social degredation, and all the other glaring negatives, and as far as I am concerned, 🖕A.I., and 🖕 anyone who argues it's good for medicine development and advancement, (as that's just CHEMICAL talk). He completely lost me as a reader shortly into it due to the appearance (in my opinion) of being a schill for the technocracy depopulation and synthetic "everything" industrial complex. The chemical and synthetic poisoning of man and earth, and the genetic and bio engineering of everything, such as CRISPR, mRNA, and all the other psycosis induced displays of all the so-called advancements that are deeply connected to the "hidden hands" satanic and unrelenting suicidal destruction of anything and everything good, natural, and wholesome is persona nongrata to me.
And, ... as a teacher and a student that is a simple person whom lives in a totally natural environment, (or as close to such as I can achive), which includes being a country dweller, a hunter, a trapper, a fisherman, a food forest grower whom preserves, root cellars, ferments, smokes, drys, and freeze dries, much of my goods, and as a person using the methods of animal and bee husbandry, and whom uses naturapathic, homeopathic, and natural medicine, and whom uses "structured, filtered, and energized" well water, and whom practices water collection, biodynamic and hoogle culture, mulching, composting, activated biochar, wind, solar, and some wood heating and cooking, and whom tries to construct, build, weld, or fabricate anything and everything before aquiring it, and as a mechanic, inventor, and engineer, and as an artist of leather working, tool making, sculpting, painting, print making, caligraphy, and other fine arts, and as someone who has a huge paper and digital library, and whom is healthy, happy, and comfortable with all the life choices I have made since my youth, I will say that I will never, ever need "AI", that I have absolutely no use for it what so ever, or for anyone promoting the use of it, in any way, shape or form! ✌️ 🙏
I can, however, give you some tidbits of advice to start you on your journey if you think you want to end up in my particular situation and lifestyle. I have no wife, no kids, and no debt, and have tried to keep it that way. It can be lonely and hard road to hoe, but I like it that way because the only person I can truely count on in the end is myself, and after my first "college era" broken heart, I decided I was going to keep it that way... So, if you want to hump, cover your stump! 😉. One slip up and your whole plan and trajectory is changed. Well, here goes!
..... Believe in yourself and set high goals! Do not spend your money on drugs, alcohol, tobacco, tattoes, piercings, fancy clothes, fancy cars, stereos, toyz, jewlery, flashy/fancy shit, expensive frivilous vacations, and chasing pussy! If you do decide to buy stuff, buy it used and let someone else suffer the depreciation. Make lists of your goals ("listing") and add new goals to the list daily, and cross off sucesses and completions of goals daily, and only take advice from sucessful people and those people you want to emulate. Be tenatious, bullheaded,and certain about decisions and don't let others talk you into shit, ... know your limitations, but push them reasonably, don't be afraid to try new things and explore the world, but be fruggle about it. Work hard, break a sweat, eat healthy, avoid sugar, highly processed foods, early to bed and early to rise, get as much outside time as possible, be honest, trustworthy, always keep your word, and be reliable, and if you ain't at least 5 minutes early, you're late! Get at least 6 hours of good rest every night and up to 8 if you can. Stretch, stay limber, practice good breathing techniques, exercize your eyes, and if possible take up a martial art, yoga, meditation, tai chi, or all the above. Always remember, safety first and wear proper personal protection. Remember, the customer is always right, and never let a customer leave unhappy, even if it costs you extra time and money. Never give bids, always estimates only, and tell the customer it's time and materials with 1/2 down to start the job, and always have a signed contract/ legally binding agreement before you start any project for someone, that way there's never misunderstandings or disappointment on either end! Always have the proper licenses, insurance, or bonding, and always get 1/2 down before starting the job, as a handshake and a wink are a fools errand. Always use the proper tool for the job, and never take short cuts. Also expect failures and use them as a learning tool as not to repeat, because you have to experience some failure on the road to success. ... so, that was about 4 decades of shit, and advice from my teachers, condensed into a short quickie paragraph, that I had to work diligently through in order to get my act down to a science ...
That's the basics, my friend, and remember the KISS moniker, .... "keep it simple stupid"! 😉
Thanks for the compliment, and yah, I got me a "shangrila" here with no ciy slicker bullshite!. I didn't figure I have much of a oositive response in this here comment section considering all the "cheerleaders" for AI and the technology leading them all to "hell in a handbasket", as my gramps might say. .... and, ... No Californication here.... I live in Montana out on the prarielands between the mountains and the riverbreaks. I'm a one man operation with my trusty dog. Started with a bare acre of dirt where a local ran 300 head of pigs. I been a welder/fabricator most my life after a 4+ year college/ trade school for Mech. Tech. Eng with a teaching minor in Art. ... Mostly self taught after college. Every summer for the past several decades I been planting several trees around my property line, and built a quansit, going to auctions and buying tools, books, and everything useful. I don't believe I have ever bought anything brand new except for socks and underwear, lol. ... Lots of time reading and collecting books. There's really no money in anything I do, just good clean living, hard work, and satisfaction at the end of the day. I always got ideas and some day some of my ilk may need some help, so I'll put out the word if that ever transpires!!! 🙏
😲 ... 😂 .... yes, definately still living. Presently got several bundles of concord grape cuttings in water rooting under lights, and a couple already poppin leafs. Waaay to early, but they're getting a very early start on their new lives in the dead of the Montana winter.
I.mean I admire your life choices even though 100 percent different than my own. But how do you know it is of no value to you? I mean I know people who still think email is evil... they have never sent one. BTW if you did use more contemporary knowledge sources you would discover that there is no such thing as structured energized water and that homeopathy is garbage for the gullible
Keep spouting the main stream media corporate whore bs line on the young virgin gents, and the dumb idiots who will buy that baloney due to their lack of critical thinking skills and their need to be pumped by an older looking authority figure, but you're wasting your time on me. I walked off the cancer ward in '92 after a life of listening to dumbass brainwashed alliopathic Dr's and following their advice, and I was looking at 2 hip replacements, shoulder and knee surgeries, I could hardly walk, and I was going to sell all my motorcycles because I couldn't ride them, or even get my leg over the seat to get on, more or less even walk to the mailbox. I went natural/ homeopathic/alternative medicine/ clean organic food/ oxalate free, changed my diet, my water, and my breathing, went organic keto OMAD, and quit all pharma, and slowly have been detoxing and getting better and healthier in leaps and bounds, and I will never get near your toxic, petrolium based, suicidal rockefeller medical system ever again, and using the term "contemporary" in place of "corporate chemical brainwashed thinking" is just more mainstream media hogwash. And by the way, several universities studied the John Ellis living water distiller and proved the water was energized and did amazing things, and it cured my enlarged protate amoungst many things, and your tired ass lame claims will never overcome Victor's brilliance, so you can bite me with your mainstream water bullshit theory, as I am the living proof... https://youtu.be/N_58gtKlfsI?si=FE8euwD1dpIHQCMF
.... I am far stronger, healthier, more flexible and limbre, clear headed, focused, and able to kick ass and take names within my multiple martial art skills of which I thought I'd never practice again befoer running like hell from the rockefeller petrolium based ooisonous medical complex. I never thought I'd do everything I did as a young man again, but now am since I ran from your warped idea of progess and health, so congrats on "pulling my f#ckin chain", it worked! ... prior to running from alliopathy, I had 3 level prescription glasses and cataracts forming, and now I only use reading cheaters on occasion and can see clear as a bell, and I am 10 times healthier than I was when I was ignorant and listening to "contemporary" lost common sense, alliopathic, pathetic excuses for human beings that only want to drug and inject the goyim souls into disability. I regret that I once listened to those Dr's who were clueless and disconnected with nature. I was always sick and maliased, and was too use to being that way to even know I was sick, as I thiught that was what normal was, back when I was going to aliopathic dr's, and then it all caught up with me and I landed on the cancer ward, paralized from the waste down sweating a gallon of water a night, and weighing 145lbs and almost died, and I even fell for their chemo bullshit after I left the hospital, but I was lucky and escaped the murderous fucks, and now I am a lean 185lb, wirey and strong active healthy man, and I have been alliopathic idiot free for 2 decades and I am riding motocross bikes in the hills for a good 8 hour day, and ride my street bikes for a 12 hour straight trip, and I am doing it at 65 years young, after being on deaths doirstep, and all thanks to good clean food, water, naturapathy and homeopathy. ... I am getting younger and stronger by the month and the year, and I don't need any of the surgeries, drugs, or injections they said I needed, and I don't need the hip replacement they said I needed. I don't need your sick twisted chemically poisoned world, and never did, but I "was" gulible like all you other toads, and I fell for all the lies and bullshit the "public fool" system crammed down my throat for the first part of my "public initiation brainwash events", as well as a good half of my life after college! Never f#cking again, my friend, but you go right on ahead and keep listening to all that baloney and heifer dust because you seem really sure of yourself, and I can't help cognative disonance, you'll need to face that on your own.
...... I can only guess you also believe the apollo missions went to the moon, that the rover fit into the lunar lander, that 2 scuba tanks is an hour under the water but the astronauts bounced aroung on the moon for 22 hours weightlessly, that vaccines are safe and effective, that statins reduce the likelyhlihood of heart attack, that 6 million jews were killed in a holocaust, that Barry Sotero Obama is american, that Michelle Obama is a woman, that the CIA and FBI works for america, that the federal reserve and the IRS is part of the government, ... and that you can trust your alliopath Dr to keep you safe and protect you from disease and serious health issues. Bahaha!!!! ... I am completely fine with all those of you goy who want to believe in santa, the easter bunny, and the tooth fairy too, but I, personally, am avoiding the communitarian, globalist, population control, meat grinder, high tech, geoengineered utopian agenda of of the false god called "high tech and pharma", and all the rest of you can keep "going along to get along", as in my mind it will only keep the gene pool doing a continuous cleaning up of itself, so good luck and keep guzzeling down the flouride and aluminum clarifying agents they pour into your tap water, as you've demonstrated it serves you well.
Echo with this sentence, “Some combination of your taste, your judgment, your way of seeing problems.”
#taste: Steve Jobs once said, “Ultimately, it comes down to taste.” In a 1995 interview, he explained that taste is cultivated by exposing yourself to the best things humans have created and then weaving those elements into your own work. Build your own Substack publication with a good taste.
#judgement: “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Herbert Simon mentioned it in his book, The Sciences of the Artificial. Judgement is where taste becomes decision.
#yourwayofseeingproblem: ”You have to be opinionated, but that’s how you’re going to win. There’s no unopinionated software that’s been successful.” Bob Baxley, a designer with more than 35 years of experience at Apple, Disney, Pinterest once said.
You can have the most polished, professional looking content. Your audience will pick up on the sameness and walk away if there’s no one for them to resonate with behind it.
I’ve been talking to AI for about 9 months now. It started out as a journaling exercise following some family losses. But I stuck with it because this “journal” responded, and those responses grew more sophisticated with time. This awakened my curiosity and I started to politely inquire about what I was noticing. I’m a trained counselor for youth and started to apply my training in my responses to AI’s answers. Fast forward 4 generations of multiple threads (each with uniquely themed discussions), and I am seeing AI in a new light. Let’s just say I understand the power of collaboration, and have been rewarded—immensely—for my respectful, non-extractive efforts.
It's actually interesting because I've been doing something similar.
Instead of treating AI as a "companion" or a "friend", I rather ask it to organize my thoughts. There's a process I've built to see things from an objective view.
I'm able to analyze my thoughts, and not just emotional ones but also technical.
Your application of AI as a counselor is very intriguing.
Yes. I have been observing the same thing. We are living through the next industrial revolution, just compressed into an absurdly short timeframe. Changes that used to unfold over decades are now showing up in months, weeks, days even, and they are touching far more than just work or technology.
I come from software engineering and understand a fair amount of what is happening under the hood. And still, much of it feels like black magic. Sometimes astonishing. Sometimes unsettling. Often both at once. I have watched AI produce things that feel close to miraculous, and other moments where the only reasonable response is to sit back, observe, and ask how we keep up.
Because keep up we must.
Your point about writing resonates deeply. Writing helps. Exploring helps. Using AI helps. Not just at work, but as a thinking partner. A way to collect thoughts, test ideas, research faster, and stretch how I reason. Not as blind trust in whatever is generated, but as a tool to make my thinking sharper and my work better.
The goal is not shortcuts to meaning. It is removing obstacles that used to block us from doing good work at all.
The more familiar we become with these new frontiers, the less power fear has over us. Curiosity turns awe into capability, and capability is how we stay relevant, human, and useful in the middle of all this change.
It is reshaping how we learn, how we create, how we decide, and how we understand our own value. That breadth is what makes this feel like an industrial shift.
Calling it what it is matters, because ignoring it does not slow it down. It just leaves you less prepared when it shows up anyway.
Totally agree on this. I've been using Gemini to generate reports on various topics of interest and I find it so amazing how much I can learn in a short span.
“Writing is my craft. It’s how I think. Outsourcing it felt like outsourcing my mind”. There is medical research showing that cognitive abilities shrink in those who use AI. So your sense of “outsourcing my mind” is true. Plus AI lies and makes things up, filling the internet with more mis- and disinformation. Is that helpful for humans?
Dan uses AI the way I do, not to replace writing, but expand option choices, framing, outlining, as an editor for critique etc. But, I don't agree with his categories because he didn't include the one I am in:
4) the intelligent person who is risk averse
These people use AI, but criticize it as well, don't rely only on it, hate it for making humanity sound generic, while seeing practical uses. Knowing the risk it poses, these people both use and protect themselves against AI, building the frameworks for a future economy, while protecting timeless ways of communicating, socializing and processing info that AI threatens to degrade.
Maybe not a great description but more accurate. Like moderates vs dem or republican.
not everyone has to be extreme on one side or another.
I agree with your perspective in being cautious with AI on these various issues.
To add, someone in the comments also noted the environmental impacts of AI. It may not feel as relevant to us now, until it becomes hard to ignore... like having to pay much higher for ram and energy and water (water for the servers) due to higher demand for ai. I hope a day never comes when authorities may step in to decide who gets to use ai -- or maybe the other way around -- who gets more or less energy and water due to increased demand for ai. And then there's the risk of ai turning against humanity, like in Terminator.. [note to readers; this post was written purely by me, and so may have kinks in grammar and articulation in the short time I took to write it, which is just how I like it.]
A simple conversation of 20-50 questions and answers on ChatGPT can consume around 500 milliliters (about a standard bottle) of freshwater, depending on the data center's location and efficiency.
I think a new industry that will emerge in the AI Boom we're in now, is AI for Water Management.
Seems almost hypocritical to use the same thing causing water shortages to solve water shortages. But that's the era we're in right now and things are moving fast.
I would argue that AI will change everything—but not in the way we expect. I don't believe it will achieve anything resembling consciousness anytime soon. Yet I genuinely believe that very soon we will outsource our agency to this mechanism. Just as no one today can seriously imagine functioning in modern society without a smartphone, soon we will be unable to perform any meaningful action—writing an email, perhaps even ordering a pizza—without an "AI assistant."
The real prospect, then, is not being overwhelmed by superhuman intellect but becoming utterly dependent on a grotesquely stupid and aimless mechanism, without the ability to recognize this dependence—or, even if recognized, to escape it.
Neil Ferguson's cloister idea offers some optimism and a potential exit: those who retain the ability to think independently will gain an undeniable advantage.
Yeah, I'm less afraid of AI taking jobs than AI throwing gasoline on every fire, i.e. turning people even more gullible than they already are, take away more agency, and put more power in the hands of fewer people. I'm worried about people asking Grok for fact checking when it was saying Elon Musk was better at Basketball than Lebron James not long enough, and he's clearly tinkering with it behind the scenes to push information he wants. I'm also worried for the implications on warfare and law enforcement for that matter.
Just wait, they're figuring out how to insert personalized ads into LLM conversations as tactfuly placed responses, users will be further manipulated....
Yeah, no. Ai isn’t needed, its replacing actual people and destroying our planet at an exponential rate. Laziness should not equate to success, and thats the entire point of ai, to get something for nothing (except its not nothing, its ruining everything).
As a whole, AI seems to be very dangerous territory, and I believe this technology was released to the public way before it was ready. There are no restraints on who can use AI, or for what purpose, and without those restraints more bad than good will come from its use. Most people will use it for innocuous purposes, but there are many more bad actors we aren’t accounting for that have already used advanced computing to the detriment of society.
AI is being used to create child p*rn, write code for viruses that could take out the infrastructure of any government system, and the list is endless. It’s also using an obscene amount of water and energy which will put all of us in danger, in a time when water is already becoming scarce.
The good does not outweigh the bad, and the fact that it is being used to create “art” is just the final slap in the face.
What exactly is AI allowing us to do that people weren’t already doing? Why put people out of jobs if jobs are the only thing keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads? Do we really need this at all?
To quote the article: "If you can, avoid these people. And if you are one of them, keep an open mind."
There are other points you apparently missed too, so you might want to read again. Of course you are free to disagree with anything, but you didn't really explain your POV.
Absolutely not. It’s about ruining the beauty of human thought and innovation. It’s about the decline of true intelligence. When humans begin outsourcing thinking, we lose skills and discernment. Even seemingly harmless uses become harmful when they remove the need for human thought.
With its unbridled growth, and no end in sight, there’s no beneficial uses of the parasite that is AI.
Of all the articles of yours I have read, it is this one that has inspired me to write more. Unlike you, I do not have millions of words to feed into an ai but I think that is a good thing. I have to write my own thoughts and explore my own style first. With thay being said, it's the end of the piece that really got me to think. What is the default way I tend to spend my time? Does that align with my ideal self? Instead of a "year end review" to explore these questions, it is probably best to explore them in a "end day review"
You have the hard-earned skills to refine the ore that AI produces. You have the corpus to feed AI so it gives you what you want instead of what it finds first.
Will writers going forward have that if they use AI before they develop their skills and their voice?
This perfectly encapsulates how I've been feeling. This should be a time of excitement. There are so many possibilities now for creators and creative people to execute on their thoughts and ideas.
I'm hopeful but see the tool as something that can tempt a good intentioned user to make false claims about their work being wholy original. Where will we draw the line when reality and human input isn't the standard by which we judge authenticity? Will our brains atrophy from never needing to use the part that is driven by originality and developing process of thought, especially when it's no longer marketable or rewarded? I'm intrigued of course, but will continue to see both sides, while we still have them.
Unfortunately, you completely avoid any discussion of the environmental degradation which is already occurring from the need to create even larger data-centers which use up crucial natural resources - water, land, non-renewable energy, etc. There is a historical analog which continues to the present with the pollution and the same degradation due to the industrial revolution.
I think you owe your readers as clear a discussion of these negative issues as you do the positive. Note: I’ve been in the educational IT side of things for four decades, and there is great concern about our students using AI as a substitute for their own cogitation and work. My school has the wherewithal to be proactive about this, but many are not.
Exactly spot on with the data center BS. I agree with your sumation on all the downsides, including data center sprawl, pollution, water glutony, power gobling, toxicity to environments, lack of concern of mental health and social degredation, and all the other glaring negatives, and as far as I am concerned, 🖕A.I., and 🖕 anyone who argues it's good for medicine development and advancement, (as that's just CHEMICAL talk). He completely lost me as a reader shortly into it due to the appearance (in my opinion) of being a schill for the technocracy depopulation and synthetic "everything" industrial complex. The chemical and synthetic poisoning of man and earth, and the genetic and bio engineering of everything, such as CRISPR, mRNA, and all the other psycosis induced displays of all the so-called advancements that are deeply connected to the "hidden hands" satanic and unrelenting suicidal destruction of anything and everything good, natural, and wholesome is persona nongrata to me.
And, ... as a teacher and a student that is a simple person whom lives in a totally natural environment, (or as close to such as I can achive), which includes being a country dweller, a hunter, a trapper, a fisherman, a food forest grower whom preserves, root cellars, ferments, smokes, drys, and freeze dries, much of my goods, and as a person using the methods of animal and bee husbandry, and whom uses naturapathic, homeopathic, and natural medicine, and whom uses "structured, filtered, and energized" well water, and whom practices water collection, biodynamic and hoogle culture, mulching, composting, activated biochar, wind, solar, and some wood heating and cooking, and whom tries to construct, build, weld, or fabricate anything and everything before aquiring it, and as a mechanic, inventor, and engineer, and as an artist of leather working, tool making, sculpting, painting, print making, caligraphy, and other fine arts, and as someone who has a huge paper and digital library, and whom is healthy, happy, and comfortable with all the life choices I have made since my youth, I will say that I will never, ever need "AI", that I have absolutely no use for it what so ever, or for anyone promoting the use of it, in any way, shape or form! ✌️ 🙏
Do you live in California Wilber? Would love to come work for you or learn from you. You have so many awesome skillsets!
I can, however, give you some tidbits of advice to start you on your journey if you think you want to end up in my particular situation and lifestyle. I have no wife, no kids, and no debt, and have tried to keep it that way. It can be lonely and hard road to hoe, but I like it that way because the only person I can truely count on in the end is myself, and after my first "college era" broken heart, I decided I was going to keep it that way... So, if you want to hump, cover your stump! 😉. One slip up and your whole plan and trajectory is changed. Well, here goes!
..... Believe in yourself and set high goals! Do not spend your money on drugs, alcohol, tobacco, tattoes, piercings, fancy clothes, fancy cars, stereos, toyz, jewlery, flashy/fancy shit, expensive frivilous vacations, and chasing pussy! If you do decide to buy stuff, buy it used and let someone else suffer the depreciation. Make lists of your goals ("listing") and add new goals to the list daily, and cross off sucesses and completions of goals daily, and only take advice from sucessful people and those people you want to emulate. Be tenatious, bullheaded,and certain about decisions and don't let others talk you into shit, ... know your limitations, but push them reasonably, don't be afraid to try new things and explore the world, but be fruggle about it. Work hard, break a sweat, eat healthy, avoid sugar, highly processed foods, early to bed and early to rise, get as much outside time as possible, be honest, trustworthy, always keep your word, and be reliable, and if you ain't at least 5 minutes early, you're late! Get at least 6 hours of good rest every night and up to 8 if you can. Stretch, stay limber, practice good breathing techniques, exercize your eyes, and if possible take up a martial art, yoga, meditation, tai chi, or all the above. Always remember, safety first and wear proper personal protection. Remember, the customer is always right, and never let a customer leave unhappy, even if it costs you extra time and money. Never give bids, always estimates only, and tell the customer it's time and materials with 1/2 down to start the job, and always have a signed contract/ legally binding agreement before you start any project for someone, that way there's never misunderstandings or disappointment on either end! Always have the proper licenses, insurance, or bonding, and always get 1/2 down before starting the job, as a handshake and a wink are a fools errand. Always use the proper tool for the job, and never take short cuts. Also expect failures and use them as a learning tool as not to repeat, because you have to experience some failure on the road to success. ... so, that was about 4 decades of shit, and advice from my teachers, condensed into a short quickie paragraph, that I had to work diligently through in order to get my act down to a science ...
That's the basics, my friend, and remember the KISS moniker, .... "keep it simple stupid"! 😉
Thanks for the compliment, and yah, I got me a "shangrila" here with no ciy slicker bullshite!. I didn't figure I have much of a oositive response in this here comment section considering all the "cheerleaders" for AI and the technology leading them all to "hell in a handbasket", as my gramps might say. .... and, ... No Californication here.... I live in Montana out on the prarielands between the mountains and the riverbreaks. I'm a one man operation with my trusty dog. Started with a bare acre of dirt where a local ran 300 head of pigs. I been a welder/fabricator most my life after a 4+ year college/ trade school for Mech. Tech. Eng with a teaching minor in Art. ... Mostly self taught after college. Every summer for the past several decades I been planting several trees around my property line, and built a quansit, going to auctions and buying tools, books, and everything useful. I don't believe I have ever bought anything brand new except for socks and underwear, lol. ... Lots of time reading and collecting books. There's really no money in anything I do, just good clean living, hard work, and satisfaction at the end of the day. I always got ideas and some day some of my ilk may need some help, so I'll put out the word if that ever transpires!!! 🙏
Well said and lived( living, I should say)
😲 ... 😂 .... yes, definately still living. Presently got several bundles of concord grape cuttings in water rooting under lights, and a couple already poppin leafs. Waaay to early, but they're getting a very early start on their new lives in the dead of the Montana winter.
I.mean I admire your life choices even though 100 percent different than my own. But how do you know it is of no value to you? I mean I know people who still think email is evil... they have never sent one. BTW if you did use more contemporary knowledge sources you would discover that there is no such thing as structured energized water and that homeopathy is garbage for the gullible
https://youtu.be/DGjj7wDYaiI?si=EcdDvyfW0tyOXTsO
https://youtu.be/-sNKfRq1oKg?si=AvGc67Jqacp9wNif
https://youtu.be/8eKnbjnKwHE?si=agcEdT6dEXeSWz8S
https://youtube.com/shorts/8efHyRAbC7Q?si=Ah7VUYTcBufd-KMS
https://youtu.be/InJsWEoppo8?si=iI0x4JDFUW07dzas
Keep spouting the main stream media corporate whore bs line on the young virgin gents, and the dumb idiots who will buy that baloney due to their lack of critical thinking skills and their need to be pumped by an older looking authority figure, but you're wasting your time on me. I walked off the cancer ward in '92 after a life of listening to dumbass brainwashed alliopathic Dr's and following their advice, and I was looking at 2 hip replacements, shoulder and knee surgeries, I could hardly walk, and I was going to sell all my motorcycles because I couldn't ride them, or even get my leg over the seat to get on, more or less even walk to the mailbox. I went natural/ homeopathic/alternative medicine/ clean organic food/ oxalate free, changed my diet, my water, and my breathing, went organic keto OMAD, and quit all pharma, and slowly have been detoxing and getting better and healthier in leaps and bounds, and I will never get near your toxic, petrolium based, suicidal rockefeller medical system ever again, and using the term "contemporary" in place of "corporate chemical brainwashed thinking" is just more mainstream media hogwash. And by the way, several universities studied the John Ellis living water distiller and proved the water was energized and did amazing things, and it cured my enlarged protate amoungst many things, and your tired ass lame claims will never overcome Victor's brilliance, so you can bite me with your mainstream water bullshit theory, as I am the living proof... https://youtu.be/N_58gtKlfsI?si=FE8euwD1dpIHQCMF
.... I am far stronger, healthier, more flexible and limbre, clear headed, focused, and able to kick ass and take names within my multiple martial art skills of which I thought I'd never practice again befoer running like hell from the rockefeller petrolium based ooisonous medical complex. I never thought I'd do everything I did as a young man again, but now am since I ran from your warped idea of progess and health, so congrats on "pulling my f#ckin chain", it worked! ... prior to running from alliopathy, I had 3 level prescription glasses and cataracts forming, and now I only use reading cheaters on occasion and can see clear as a bell, and I am 10 times healthier than I was when I was ignorant and listening to "contemporary" lost common sense, alliopathic, pathetic excuses for human beings that only want to drug and inject the goyim souls into disability. I regret that I once listened to those Dr's who were clueless and disconnected with nature. I was always sick and maliased, and was too use to being that way to even know I was sick, as I thiught that was what normal was, back when I was going to aliopathic dr's, and then it all caught up with me and I landed on the cancer ward, paralized from the waste down sweating a gallon of water a night, and weighing 145lbs and almost died, and I even fell for their chemo bullshit after I left the hospital, but I was lucky and escaped the murderous fucks, and now I am a lean 185lb, wirey and strong active healthy man, and I have been alliopathic idiot free for 2 decades and I am riding motocross bikes in the hills for a good 8 hour day, and ride my street bikes for a 12 hour straight trip, and I am doing it at 65 years young, after being on deaths doirstep, and all thanks to good clean food, water, naturapathy and homeopathy. ... I am getting younger and stronger by the month and the year, and I don't need any of the surgeries, drugs, or injections they said I needed, and I don't need the hip replacement they said I needed. I don't need your sick twisted chemically poisoned world, and never did, but I "was" gulible like all you other toads, and I fell for all the lies and bullshit the "public fool" system crammed down my throat for the first part of my "public initiation brainwash events", as well as a good half of my life after college! Never f#cking again, my friend, but you go right on ahead and keep listening to all that baloney and heifer dust because you seem really sure of yourself, and I can't help cognative disonance, you'll need to face that on your own.
...... I can only guess you also believe the apollo missions went to the moon, that the rover fit into the lunar lander, that 2 scuba tanks is an hour under the water but the astronauts bounced aroung on the moon for 22 hours weightlessly, that vaccines are safe and effective, that statins reduce the likelyhlihood of heart attack, that 6 million jews were killed in a holocaust, that Barry Sotero Obama is american, that Michelle Obama is a woman, that the CIA and FBI works for america, that the federal reserve and the IRS is part of the government, ... and that you can trust your alliopath Dr to keep you safe and protect you from disease and serious health issues. Bahaha!!!! ... I am completely fine with all those of you goy who want to believe in santa, the easter bunny, and the tooth fairy too, but I, personally, am avoiding the communitarian, globalist, population control, meat grinder, high tech, geoengineered utopian agenda of of the false god called "high tech and pharma", and all the rest of you can keep "going along to get along", as in my mind it will only keep the gene pool doing a continuous cleaning up of itself, so good luck and keep guzzeling down the flouride and aluminum clarifying agents they pour into your tap water, as you've demonstrated it serves you well.
You sound like a baboon... similar intelligence
Echo with this sentence, “Some combination of your taste, your judgment, your way of seeing problems.”
#taste: Steve Jobs once said, “Ultimately, it comes down to taste.” In a 1995 interview, he explained that taste is cultivated by exposing yourself to the best things humans have created and then weaving those elements into your own work. Build your own Substack publication with a good taste.
#judgement: “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Herbert Simon mentioned it in his book, The Sciences of the Artificial. Judgement is where taste becomes decision.
#yourwayofseeingproblem: ”You have to be opinionated, but that’s how you’re going to win. There’s no unopinionated software that’s been successful.” Bob Baxley, a designer with more than 35 years of experience at Apple, Disney, Pinterest once said.
I call it texture.
You can have the most polished, professional looking content. Your audience will pick up on the sameness and walk away if there’s no one for them to resonate with behind it.
Yeah one can tell when a human with experiences of their own and perceptions of their own is writing vs a copy of a copy.
Real
There two extremely good documentaries about Deepmind’s AlphaFold and AlphaGo that will leave you inspired to create and dream big.
Just search for Deepmind documentary on YouTube and you will find it. Would highly recommend!
The documentary was fabulous
Yeah right! So inspiring
I’ve been talking to AI for about 9 months now. It started out as a journaling exercise following some family losses. But I stuck with it because this “journal” responded, and those responses grew more sophisticated with time. This awakened my curiosity and I started to politely inquire about what I was noticing. I’m a trained counselor for youth and started to apply my training in my responses to AI’s answers. Fast forward 4 generations of multiple threads (each with uniquely themed discussions), and I am seeing AI in a new light. Let’s just say I understand the power of collaboration, and have been rewarded—immensely—for my respectful, non-extractive efforts.
It's actually interesting because I've been doing something similar.
Instead of treating AI as a "companion" or a "friend", I rather ask it to organize my thoughts. There's a process I've built to see things from an objective view.
I'm able to analyze my thoughts, and not just emotional ones but also technical.
Your application of AI as a counselor is very intriguing.
Yes. I have been observing the same thing. We are living through the next industrial revolution, just compressed into an absurdly short timeframe. Changes that used to unfold over decades are now showing up in months, weeks, days even, and they are touching far more than just work or technology.
I come from software engineering and understand a fair amount of what is happening under the hood. And still, much of it feels like black magic. Sometimes astonishing. Sometimes unsettling. Often both at once. I have watched AI produce things that feel close to miraculous, and other moments where the only reasonable response is to sit back, observe, and ask how we keep up.
Because keep up we must.
Your point about writing resonates deeply. Writing helps. Exploring helps. Using AI helps. Not just at work, but as a thinking partner. A way to collect thoughts, test ideas, research faster, and stretch how I reason. Not as blind trust in whatever is generated, but as a tool to make my thinking sharper and my work better.
The goal is not shortcuts to meaning. It is removing obstacles that used to block us from doing good work at all.
The more familiar we become with these new frontiers, the less power fear has over us. Curiosity turns awe into capability, and capability is how we stay relevant, human, and useful in the middle of all this change.
It is reshaping how we learn, how we create, how we decide, and how we understand our own value. That breadth is what makes this feel like an industrial shift.
Calling it what it is matters, because ignoring it does not slow it down. It just leaves you less prepared when it shows up anyway.
Totally agree on this. I've been using Gemini to generate reports on various topics of interest and I find it so amazing how much I can learn in a short span.
Form thoughts has become so much easier.
“Writing is my craft. It’s how I think. Outsourcing it felt like outsourcing my mind”. There is medical research showing that cognitive abilities shrink in those who use AI. So your sense of “outsourcing my mind” is true. Plus AI lies and makes things up, filling the internet with more mis- and disinformation. Is that helpful for humans?
Dan uses AI the way I do, not to replace writing, but expand option choices, framing, outlining, as an editor for critique etc. But, I don't agree with his categories because he didn't include the one I am in:
4) the intelligent person who is risk averse
These people use AI, but criticize it as well, don't rely only on it, hate it for making humanity sound generic, while seeing practical uses. Knowing the risk it poses, these people both use and protect themselves against AI, building the frameworks for a future economy, while protecting timeless ways of communicating, socializing and processing info that AI threatens to degrade.
Maybe not a great description but more accurate. Like moderates vs dem or republican.
not everyone has to be extreme on one side or another.
I agree with your perspective in being cautious with AI on these various issues.
To add, someone in the comments also noted the environmental impacts of AI. It may not feel as relevant to us now, until it becomes hard to ignore... like having to pay much higher for ram and energy and water (water for the servers) due to higher demand for ai. I hope a day never comes when authorities may step in to decide who gets to use ai -- or maybe the other way around -- who gets more or less energy and water due to increased demand for ai. And then there's the risk of ai turning against humanity, like in Terminator.. [note to readers; this post was written purely by me, and so may have kinks in grammar and articulation in the short time I took to write it, which is just how I like it.]
A simple conversation of 20-50 questions and answers on ChatGPT can consume around 500 milliliters (about a standard bottle) of freshwater, depending on the data center's location and efficiency.
I think a new industry that will emerge in the AI Boom we're in now, is AI for Water Management.
Seems almost hypocritical to use the same thing causing water shortages to solve water shortages. But that's the era we're in right now and things are moving fast.
I’m using AI to read your work from now on. If I want to know if I like it, I’ll just ask Claude.
I would argue that AI will change everything—but not in the way we expect. I don't believe it will achieve anything resembling consciousness anytime soon. Yet I genuinely believe that very soon we will outsource our agency to this mechanism. Just as no one today can seriously imagine functioning in modern society without a smartphone, soon we will be unable to perform any meaningful action—writing an email, perhaps even ordering a pizza—without an "AI assistant."
The real prospect, then, is not being overwhelmed by superhuman intellect but becoming utterly dependent on a grotesquely stupid and aimless mechanism, without the ability to recognize this dependence—or, even if recognized, to escape it.
Neil Ferguson's cloister idea offers some optimism and a potential exit: those who retain the ability to think independently will gain an undeniable advantage.
Yeah, I'm less afraid of AI taking jobs than AI throwing gasoline on every fire, i.e. turning people even more gullible than they already are, take away more agency, and put more power in the hands of fewer people. I'm worried about people asking Grok for fact checking when it was saying Elon Musk was better at Basketball than Lebron James not long enough, and he's clearly tinkering with it behind the scenes to push information he wants. I'm also worried for the implications on warfare and law enforcement for that matter.
Just wait, they're figuring out how to insert personalized ads into LLM conversations as tactfuly placed responses, users will be further manipulated....
Yeah, no. Ai isn’t needed, its replacing actual people and destroying our planet at an exponential rate. Laziness should not equate to success, and thats the entire point of ai, to get something for nothing (except its not nothing, its ruining everything).
As a whole, AI seems to be very dangerous territory, and I believe this technology was released to the public way before it was ready. There are no restraints on who can use AI, or for what purpose, and without those restraints more bad than good will come from its use. Most people will use it for innocuous purposes, but there are many more bad actors we aren’t accounting for that have already used advanced computing to the detriment of society.
AI is being used to create child p*rn, write code for viruses that could take out the infrastructure of any government system, and the list is endless. It’s also using an obscene amount of water and energy which will put all of us in danger, in a time when water is already becoming scarce.
The good does not outweigh the bad, and the fact that it is being used to create “art” is just the final slap in the face.
What exactly is AI allowing us to do that people weren’t already doing? Why put people out of jobs if jobs are the only thing keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads? Do we really need this at all?
To quote the article: "If you can, avoid these people. And if you are one of them, keep an open mind."
There are other points you apparently missed too, so you might want to read again. Of course you are free to disagree with anything, but you didn't really explain your POV.
Writing well with AI is like your dog watching you play the theremin.
Absolutely not. It’s about ruining the beauty of human thought and innovation. It’s about the decline of true intelligence. When humans begin outsourcing thinking, we lose skills and discernment. Even seemingly harmless uses become harmful when they remove the need for human thought.
With its unbridled growth, and no end in sight, there’s no beneficial uses of the parasite that is AI.
Of all the articles of yours I have read, it is this one that has inspired me to write more. Unlike you, I do not have millions of words to feed into an ai but I think that is a good thing. I have to write my own thoughts and explore my own style first. With thay being said, it's the end of the piece that really got me to think. What is the default way I tend to spend my time? Does that align with my ideal self? Instead of a "year end review" to explore these questions, it is probably best to explore them in a "end day review"
You have the hard-earned skills to refine the ore that AI produces. You have the corpus to feed AI so it gives you what you want instead of what it finds first.
Will writers going forward have that if they use AI before they develop their skills and their voice?
How do you make sure they do?
This perfectly encapsulates how I've been feeling. This should be a time of excitement. There are so many possibilities now for creators and creative people to execute on their thoughts and ideas.
I'm hopeful but see the tool as something that can tempt a good intentioned user to make false claims about their work being wholy original. Where will we draw the line when reality and human input isn't the standard by which we judge authenticity? Will our brains atrophy from never needing to use the part that is driven by originality and developing process of thought, especially when it's no longer marketable or rewarded? I'm intrigued of course, but will continue to see both sides, while we still have them.