When I was born, there was no internet. I was there when it caused a revolution. Suddenly billions of people (not everyone. Today there are still people living without electricity) had access to almost all the knowledge mankind had accumulated over the centuries. An era of enlightenment dawned.
Until pranksters, trolls, 'the elite' and conspiracytheorists found their way to the internet, into our homes and into our purses and pockets.
Of course, earlier people got nudged by newspapers, radio and television into what to think and why but the internet made it incredibly easy to change the minds of millions of people at once.
Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, social media took the stage. Rather harmless at first with MySpace and blogs but soon companies and governments paid to publish content and one day we woke up with not people but computer algorithms deciding what information, services and ideas we bought into.
Recently companies behind our feed became even more lazy and got artificial intelligence to determine the contents of popular magazines like Tik Tok, Instagram, X and Facebook.
Unfortunately - just like some of their human creators - A.I. doesn't know the meaning of empathy. It can only pretend to be thoughtful. Which may not make it suitable to fight our wars for us.
A.I. now tells us how to think concerning armed conflicts, climate change, immigration, housing, food supply, et cetera. Next thing you know, A.I. will tell us how to brush our teeth and...oh, wait.
A.I. learns from scouring the internet (and by scanning physical books before destroying them) but more and more internet content is written by A.I. so A.I. is starting to learn from itself.
A donation (click) is much appreciated:
