flyrite
Registered User
Lyons,GA
Thinking Out Loud: a blog of sorts This is more of a running commentary on life than a blog. It is my chance to editorialize with no limits and no editors. I can even say sh*t, if I want to, but I won't. Well...not often. Who Is Budd Davisson? A blog bio |
NOTE: If you want to tell me I'm full of crap SEND COMMENTS TO BUDDAIRBUM@COX.NET : THINKING OUT LOUD 29 Nov 18 - Artificial, Artificial Intelligence The other day at lunch the subject turned to WW II production and I was spouting out a bunch of interesting (to me) numbers. I pointed out (in a suitably amazed voice) that 49,324 Sherman tanks were built. The young man on the other side of the table said, “You do know that I can look that up on my phone, right? So why learn it?” I was floored! I hated to admit it, but he’s right. I don’t know why we’re spending so much time trying to invent artificial intelligence, when we already have it. It’s called Google and to the millennials and Generation Z it is a substitute for both knowledge and experience. It’s truly artificial intelligence. We gray dogs, and a sizeable portion of the human brain, have been replaced. Our lifetime of experience and knowledge is obsolete and unneeded! It looks as if part of civilization is at a curious tipping point. Digital everything is replacing so many things that we’ve taken for granted for generations that it’s changing civilization. No, let me rephrase that. For newer generations, that have never known lives without Google and the associated digital universe, the need to know things simply because knowing them feels good appears (to them anyway) to be pretty much unnecessary. So, they don’t bother to learn random facts that may be useful later in life. That can’t have a good long term effect. At the upper end of the age spectrum, where loneliness is rampant, it’s sad that elderly generations that never bought into that whole computer thing are blithefully unaware of a massive world of constant companions that is only a keyboard away. While, at the same time, the newer gens have completely merged their social and mental processes with a gigantic digital blob that contains all the information they could ever need. The entire world of information is in their pockets and at their fingertips. And they depend on that. To them, it exists as an exterior brain. Disconnect that brain (kill their phones and/or iPads/computers) and they literally have a difficult time thinking for themselves. And they sure as hell don’t know how to converse or entertain themselves without digital help. God help them if, when the time comes, they don’t have You-Tube on which they can learn how to change a light bulb. To my way of thinking, the ability to Google everything, making every possible form of information instantly available to us, is an unbelievably huge help to folks like those reading this. But it is crippling to those who didn’t have a life before Google. To the former, it is an invaluable tool. To the latter, it is a crutch without which they have a difficult time functioning. BTW, what follows could easily be seen as a tirade against millennials but it’s not intended to be. There are lots of kids out there that really have their heads squared away. But, there are a few pumpkin heads, as well. That’s who I’m talking about. In some areasm, what I may be seeing as problems being caused by digital partners in life, is simply a form of disinterest (and lack of educational support). Easily the number one area in that category is history. Corner a group of college-educated folks under the age of 30-35 and ask them what years WW II ravaged the world. I’ve gotten ages from the late 1800s to the ‘70s. Ask who we fought in WW II and more than half the time England will be tossed in the mix. Ask who Lee Harvey Oswald was and the most common answer I’ve received was that he had a band in the ‘80s. In another area, ask how many feet are in a mile. Inches in a yard. Quarts in a gallon. The usual answer is a blank stare. They don’t know the answer. But Siri does and that’s all that counts. They don’t see that as a problem. They simply don’t care. Watch how quickly they go to their Tip App, when figuring a restaurant tip. Mental math no longer exists for them. How hard is it to take .2 or .3 times a number? Or divide it by 4 or 5? They can’t do it because it’s not in their schooling. But, it is in their smart phones. Apple debuted their iPhone in 2007 (seems longer than that, doesn’t it?) which blew all the earlier attempts at the smart phone concept into the weeds and captured minds worldwide. My 8-year-old granddaughter has one and is more proficient at texting and other digital endeavors than I am, yet I practically live on the damn thing. The forgoing is probably just the random bitching of a gray dog who feels as if someone is constantly moving his dog dish and he’s going hungry. He’s functioning just fine in the digital world, but is increasingly out of step with the overall outlook of what life should entail and that makes him uneasy. The general effect of digits and the general lack of interest in much of life seems to have happened almost overnight. What is the next five or ten years going to look like? It’s a little scary. However, it’s also exciting. It’s going to be a test to see how many of us can learn and acclimate and how many of us get left behind. As for me, I’m already running as fast as I can to try to stay ahead of the newest of the new. At the same time, I’m finessing skills that in the digital age look archaic. Hey, knowing how to weld, shape wood and steel, keep an old timey engine running, and group less than an inch at 100 yards, may not help me on social media (I’m not on any), but the dirt under my fingernails contains more practical knowledge than a lot of millennials will ever acquire. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Screw ‘em! bd |
