Parallel Existence

 

by Craig Willms

A while back I read a comment on a YouTube video that struck me as actually being profound. When I thought about the underlying meaning of the comment, I said to myself 'well, that's me'. In short, the subject was about how we navigate the public world and where we prefer to see our place in it. His comment was - essentially - I go out from my comfortable home, out into the world and interact with others, sometimes compelled, sometimes to accompany my wife for something important to her. I talk and interact in a pleasant way, being perfectly polite, asking questions, smiling and nodding, but not really enjoying any of it. Ok, that's over, good... We return home and I'm instantly happy to be back living a parallel existence to everyone else again.

Parallel existence. Aren't we all living a parallel existence to some degree? Yes, I think so. But we all know people who are not really happy unless they are involved, interacting with others, engaged with another person towards some end. That's what makes them feel alive. For others it's a chore, a burden, all this dealing with people. Those like me are at one with ourselves and don't need people as much... 

I know it sounds bad. It sounds like these people, people like me, don't have relationships or close friends and are not neighborly. That's not it. That's not it at all. It's hard to describe, but it really comes down to the feeling that you have interacting with the people out in the world, you're doing just that, acting. Even that sounds bad. It's best described as that feeling you have when you are finally alone and can be yourself again, peeling off the chameleon skin, done with the show.

It's not that you don't like people. You love people, certain people... It's not that you don't care about the details of their lives, even when you know they don't really care about yours. It's the fact we all have our own shit to deal with and talking about certain things is just tedious or uncomfortable, and it's usually unproductive. It's down to fact that we know that no one really cares. The ones that do care, well, they know you and accept you as you are. The rest of them are going through the motions of polite company.

For a lot of us even in our personal relationships we tend to keep everyone at an arm's length. It's not that we never open up or act in a vulnerable way, but it's kept to a bare minimum. We don't want to be a burden, and we don't seek so-called emotional support - for better or worse. Those who constantly talk about themselves or keep a verbal dialogue running eventually bore the snot out of us and we secretly pray for their silence. We usually don't share unless asked directly. We may come off as snobs I guess, but honestly, does anyone out there truly care about inane details about us? 

There are always exceptions. Some people are so skilled at communication and at expressing what I'd call genuine empathy for you that you tend to open up without even realizing you're doing it. These people are rare and special, but it's not really you that's eliciting it in them, they can do it with just about anyone. You'll notice these types of people are usually quite successful in their chosen fields. Do we envy them, maybe a little. But only a little. 

I have a feeling that this sort of parallel existence phenomenon is largely male, maybe even old guy male. I think women and girls are far more social and actually need closeness in a way that makes men uncomfortable. I think men will be nodding their heads reading this.

I'm not really sure what point I'm trying to make, but I think almost anyone can relate to some degree. Those who are not like this, the ones who dive in headfirst into social situations or really love 'involvement' in groups or social activities might find us odd, but I suspect more people are like me than are like them. It takes all kinds; the world would be a dreadfully dull place if everyone acted like me.

Cynthia vs AI

 

by Craig Willms

A few years ago, there was an ad campaign for something or another that featured Cynthia, an HOA authority figure. Cynthia would walk past a homeowner's place and point out violation after violation. The homeowner would simply respond "Thank you, Cynthia." We always got a kick out of these spots and always say 'Thank you, Cynthia' whenever someone utters the word violation.

When I was watching a YT video on the dangers of AI and the notion that it wasn't being regulated properly or at all, it made me think of  Cynthia. We need an "HOA" for AI development. We need a Cynthia to spot the violations.

In my opinion all AI models need to be subjected to the scrutiny of Cynthia as they are released into the world. I have no idea how something like that would work. How you would regulate something like AI is a mystery to me, herding cats comes to mind. Considering that these AI models are often released to corporations and the general public without any vetting it could be a disaster waiting to happen. Many in-the-know people have warned about it and there's a rumor going around that the "tech bros" and billionaires are building bunkers. Yeah, you better believe it, and they are not putting AI into their new homes.

Currently AI is actually something called LLMs (large language models) that take the sum of human knowledge and apply it to the task/question at hand. The models are trained with myriads of data on any/all subjects, often skimming the Internet and vacuuming up the relevant information. In other words, it is drawing from what is already known, already human knowledge. AI is not necessarily visionary, yet.  

Right now, AI is being released into the world through art/music/entertainment/creative endeavors as well as many business and medical processes. For the creative arts AI models are trained on the music and such that humans have already created. It is not that much different than the way musicians trained themselves since the beginning of time. I learned to play songs by dropping the needle on the record over and over. Today we just create a loop in software so that we can learn to play a segment or passage. It's the same thing; one is just slick and easy... AI 'learns' in seconds, where human musicians spend hours and hours on one song. AI draws on the patterns human composers have designed and is able to make something new, no different than human songwriter always has. There is however something missing in AI music. It's hard to put your finger on it, but it is not inspiring and can sound disingenuous. It lacks the spark that often makes a song special. It lacks the humanity, whatever that means. I admit it is getting better all the time. I suspect that "live" music will have a renaissance even if the music they play out is "pumped out" by AI. People crave authenticity.

There's been plenty of focus on AI replacing humans and taking jobs. So far it hasn't hit the work force that hard - yet. When people have no job and rely on government for basic sustenance the end is in sight. Society suffers with crime and poverty spreading out from the cities and eventually blanketing the entire country. If we go back to being an industrial society to put people to work and get them off hand outs how long before AI ushers in advanced automation and kills those jobs too? 

Don't even think of what overzealous military contractors could unleash... It's spooky.

Honestly, it is the wild wild west out there in regards to AI. Put this potentially powerful tool in the hands of evil doers and we can't even imagine the damage that could be done. Try to imagine the entire electric grid going down because an AI program was slick enough to over ride all the controls preventing transformer overload. The U.S. doesn't even make transformers anymore. It would take years to replace them. That's just one scenario - it would be devastating and would probably destroy America all by itself. Is there any doubt we need Cynthia right now.

All kidding aside is it not clear by now that AI could destroy us? It really could. Believe it. What isn't clear is how to put controls on it. Let's hope something floats to the surface that will give us - humanity - some guidance on that. Hmmm, maybe we could put AI on that.