A regular reader of this blog post has just transmitted to us by e-mail, an A-I treatment of our previous blog post, # M. 186, “HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.” The writing critically observed the unfair advantage, deceitfullly practiced by many life insurance companies in their solicitation of repurchase of insurance from the elderly, cash-strapped retiree and the analogous and equally egregious solicitation of “Equity Mortgages,” aimed at the same vulnerable targets.
In the A-I presentation, we were absolutely flummoxed to hear an appealing, natural-sounding discussion between the two human-like personalities engaged in a discussion of the theme and context of the blog, albeit, in their own nuanced voices and vocabulary; and additionally, employing inciteful commentary on the essence of the blog’s intended message. The exotic experience left us in a state of impending disaster and unmitigated horror. The profitable but fearful challenge of digital advancement, it seems, has not only disconcertingly deprived Mankind of humanistic interaction and salubrious literacy, but contemporaneously, of its sentience and rationality.
Our responsive jolt of alarm seemed to direct our literary consciousness to the gothic 19th-century novel, Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelly. As popularly known, the novel recounts the fictional story of a young Dr, Victor Frankenstein who, after considerable error, creates a creature (or, monster) capable of thought and action. Aside from its long and complex storyline, ultimately resulting in tragedy, the implicit message of the novel represents a clear warning concerning Man’s foolhardy and ultimate desire to exceed the natural, ascertainable limits of his capability and potential for understanding, Shelly’s grim warning relates to the grotesque inclination nature of Mankind’s intellectual hubris, in not recognizing the natural limits of the human aspirational desire for mastery and control.
Society’s newly created Frankenstein Monster, “A.I.” is amply preceded by a provenance of non-human creations: pilotless drone bombers, self-driving automobiles, GPS direction finders, voice-activated entertainment and cleaning devices, smartphones, tablets, digital books, and an exemplary host of assorted digitalized, nonhuman devices. It appears to be predictable that an accompaniment to each successive “improvement,” is the eventuation of some associated loss of humanism. The contemporary World scene bears a meager resemblance to that of barely 50 years ago in significant synchronization to the relevant gain in digital facility. Most disturbing is the empirical observation that the loss of humanism and personal nuance declines commensurate with each ” advance” in digital prowess.
We were stupefied and greatly disturbed by a recently televised demonstration of an A.I.-driven machine of the precise replication of the revered, sculptural representation of Michelangelo, located in a museum in Florence. The signature creation took Michaelangelo in Medieval Italy Florence the full period of 1501 to 1504 to devise and artfully create., The machine, driven and precisely guided by A.I. in approximately 45 minutes, produced a quick mirror copy; as if it were an item of cheap pottery. The unique quality of human genius and spiritual aesthetics have evidently, been tragically depreciated by this latest, “promising” digital, advent.
Our experience of the robotized, AI replication of \our writing, , ( a feature(which we understand is now universal) not unlike Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein Monster, is a hubris-driven excess that has frightening potential for the regression of humanity to robotic insensate walkers of the Planet.
-p,
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