AI Ain't Anyone’s Answer

Just when I'm lulled into thinking that Uncle Bubba is a simple country boy more intent on rigging a rod to catch a big fat fish or read the woods to plan a hunt, he springs something on me that catches me up and twists me sideways.

"I reckon that folks are finally starting to figure out that all this technology ain't all it's cracked up to be," he said nonchalantly as he tied a topwater lure onto his fishing line. "For some reason, folks fell for the trick of calling a jackass a horse and a fine one at that. This social media is as far from social as y'all can get! They say that it brings people together but that turned out to be a lie, didn't it. It should be called antisocial media." Bubbie chuckled to himself, pleased with his own joke.

He reared back and tossed out a long cast. He watched his lure get smaller as his line shot out in a graceful arc over the water. He sat quietly and intently has his lure plopped down and the line fell soft atop the surface. After a few silent anxious moments, he twitched the lure laying afloat on the water and he spoke again, "The young folks that created that mess couldn't have known the evil that resides in the hearts of men; they hadn't lived long enough. But their greed willfully blinded them to it as that mess spun out of control. I reckon that in the past years they've learnt and thing or two but they still can't help themselves; in their self-righteous ignorance they've tried to control it instead of doing the right thing--destroy it. But ain't that the neverending story of mankind?" Bubbie's tone was a little sarcastic as he reeled in his lure and flung it out again. This time there was a small explosive splash atop the water as he hooked a nice bigmouth bass. He landed it and we admired its beauty before releasing it to be caught again another day. After a few more quiet casts he picked up where his thoughts trailed off, "And shame on the folks that seem to think that the world can’t exist without a smartphone. They ain't got no more brains than a herd of ants. They line up and march on just like they're trained, never considering where they're going, or nary a thought about what they're leaving behind for their babies."

I like computers, I'm using one to write this story. Smartphones and computers are useful tools and they're entertaining. But I'm inclined to agree with Uncle Bubba's perspective. I think (and hope) that this social experiment has run its course and we, as a society, can reassess the results. I don't know if we're more divided than ever but we're definitely driving 100 mph towards a cliff. Perhaps we should pump the brakes and turn the wheel. If it hasn't become obvious that AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms are purposely giving us information that reinforces our own views then wake up. The things that are being fed to you are the things it knows you’re going to agree with. You’re not getting this diversity of opinions, you’re getting a very narrow view of the world. You have more information available to the general public than any time in history and yet people are making bad decisions and you wonder why there’s so much division? It’s this combination of social media and AI algorithms that are driving people away from diversity to just self-reinforcing opinions.

Sadly, our politicians have also fallen for this trick and why not, they aren't the sharpest tools in the tool shed and it's the easiest thing to do; assume that everyone one on social media is, well, everyone. But it’s not. It's a virtual world, pretend. It doesn't really exist so things can be, and are, made up.

And many adults aren't Tweeting all day and night because they have jobs and families to occupy their time. They have a life and it revolves around paying bills (and taxes), caring for family and friends, and maintaining their property. So who are these opinionated geniuses?

Uncle Bubba reckons, "...that we're being lead around by a bunch of old farts mistakenly pandering to spoiled, unruly teenagers. A bunch of know-it-all brats! AI ain't anyone's answer to unity because it ain't a person."

It’s computer code programmed by people with vastly different motives.

With the topwater bite tailing off Uncle Bubba tied on a jerk bait to try and entice some fish hanging out in deeper waters. As he cranked his reel to retrieve the lure his attention was split between the feel of his line underwater in anticipation of a bite and the breeze rustling the treetops along the shore. Patches of clear blue sky appeared as the sun streaked through the fluttering leafy green bows but perhaps a storm was pushing its way through the air into their near future. Suddenly Bubbie yanked back hard on his fishing rod and set the hook on another nice bass. The fish broke the surface and jumped in an attempt to spit the hook. In Bubbie's view, that fish on the line, realizing that it had been duped by a fake bait, had more sense than most people online. At least it tried to get away instead of just swimming willfully, following along on the line to its doom.

Duh, It Ain't Climate Change!

Uncle Bubba feels dumb, dumb, dumb. He can't believe that he just never saw the dog-gone truth. But he does now and it came in a watershed moment while listening to a podcast from 99% Invisible, episode 355 titled Depraved Paradise. In short, Mexico City is running out of water. In part, by building a paradise on the porous lava fields of El Pedregal. As Joni Mitchell sang, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot..." and housing, lots and lots of housing. So, too many people, historically poor design ignoring geographical anomalies and all of the infrastructure aimed at draining the rainwater from the basin, due to flooding, works against efforts to retain water for human consumption. So, "Mexico City is flooded, thirsty, and sinking — it’s a complicated problem with no simple solution..." Within the content, it was stated that Mexico City is pumping water out of the aquifer twice as fast as it can be replenished. Doesn't that strike y'all as an impossibility? It does to Uncle Bubba. He was never a math whiz but that's one of those things y'all hear and go, huh?

All of this was summed up by the host stating that climate change is only going to make all of it more extreme. Boom! That's when the flood of truth rushed into Bubbie's brain. All this talk about climate change isn't really about extreme weather, it's about OVERPOPULATION. But nobody wants to talk about overpopulation because it's a slippery slope and makes politicians nervous. For instance, we'd have to talk seriously about worldwide birth control, the living conditions of third world countries, increased emergence of new epidemics and pandemics, increased habitat loss, less freedom and more restrictions, elevated crime rate, the depletion of all natural resources, not just fresh water.

Uncle Bubba dripped with sarcasm, "Why would they talk about solutions to all these complex issues when click-bait headlines can be grabbed and political grandstanding bellowed by blaming rich white dudes? They say if we just stop polluting all problems are solved. Stop consuming and polluting, hahaha! Y'all can't have one without the other; it's the world we've created." In Bubbie's view, our "leaders" just figure that it's easier to call it a generic term and talk about the weather than to get to the truth.

I told Uncle Bubba that this is called a misnomer and he told me that he thought Miss Nomer might've been his 8th-grade teacher. We both agreed that when we talk about climate change we all should just keep it about the weather.