Artificial Intelligence and Real Stupidity

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND REAL STUPIDITY

Look into the hearts of humanity and tremble. 

Look into your own heart and flee.

It is all the same, this history, a panoply of  beliefs pitting one against another,

beliefs wielded like a sword,

the caustic leaders certainly not subscribing to such silly beliefs,

but adept at wielding them.

Beliefs,

unite the mob behind a belief,

stoke the madness,

lay claim to the power.

So it has been, and remains.

Evolution lurched to a halt upon the appearance of the human being, evolution rolling up against the rock of self-awareness that henceforth refused to entertain any change to what clearly is its own perfection.

But it is a momentary halt, a transitory barrier, the very storms unleashed by the selfish predilections of this overly self-aware species summoning its own demise.

A last great spasm of religious fervor, mixed with the toxic effluent of nationalism, is beginning its malevolent march across the planet, fueled by the usual cynical panoply of miscreants and sociopaths.  

Wealth and power will drive the leaders,

feeding the mobs’ fear and blind hatred.

Carefully cultivated ignorance and insecurity will drive the mobs.

Artificial intelligence will be no match for real stupidity.

Distributed networks will wither when fiber optics succumb to pitch-fork and torch.

Look into the hearts of humanity,

while still conveniently able to observe through your glowing screens,

before the banging on your door demands you join or die.

  Copyright 2025 Don Ray

 

Digital Storm

 

DIGITAL STORM

The digital storm,

the storm of manipulation.

We were not ready for this.

It overwhelmed us.

It snuck up on us in plain sight.

We welcomed it,

naively welcomed it.

Copyright 2025 Don Ray.  Please share.

Relationship Inflation

 

RELATIONSHIP INFLATION

Interpersonal connection is ultimately all we have, but its value has been subject to a deadly economic inflation as pseudo-connections have been rendered unlimited by digital media.  The principle at work  is the same as currency inflation.  Produce too much money in response to demand or economic weakness and the currency loses its value.  Our spiritual economic weakness, the hunger for more and more meaningful relationship, has been met with a profligate printing of currency in the form of FaceBook, Instagram, and the panoply of other social media.  We can connect with anyone anywhere at any time.  

As a result, individual relationships and interpersonal bond have been devalued.  We find ourselves in the position of so many nations throughout history who met economic privations not with addressing foundational economic weaknesses but by printing more money to momentarily placate the hungry, demanding masses.

We have not addressed the underlying crippling spiritual economic condition that leaves us hungry, empty, bitter, angry, frightened, and lonely.  We have responded to our spiritual ache of loneliness by minting ever more digital  interactions, rendering them all worthless.  We lug our bag of "likes", "followers", and "friends" to the relationship store and come away with a stale piece of bread, to which we respond by collecting more "likes", "followers", and "friends", each newly minted "connection" rendering all connections more superficial and fleeting.

Values of currencies arise only from the productivity underlying them, productivity in turn arising from work and investment.  Values of relationships likewise possess that value only when productive, when the exchange of relationship interaction among parties has some mutual and meaningful lasting benefit.  That is an economic parameter independent of any treasury, exchequer, or media corporation.  We each individually determine the value of the social currency we mint every day, with our authenticity, depth, and sincere listening, none of which are encouraged by screens and keyboards.  Log off.  Listen.  Care.  Watch the wealth accrue.

Reality Gap

Reality Gap

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.

Human perception has little to do with reality.  People will see what they expect to see.  The most powerful influence over people is not in presenting them facts and information, but shaping how they will interpret facts and information.

As an adult the abused child will see threats and react accordingly.  The insecure person will perceive disapproval.  The religious person will see God's will in events and see people of different opinion as opposing God’s will.

"The eye is the lamp of the body" sums up this human trait to see as we expect to see.

The power of media magnates is not in convincing people by presenting distorted information and falsehoods.  Their power is in making people willing to accept the distortions and falsehoods.

We can see and hear with suspicion, with insecurity, with anticipation of threat.  Or we can see and hear with hope of seeing beauty, truth, and experiencing acceptance.

Speak truth.  Do compassion.  But resign yourself to the fact it will all be interpreted and misinterpreted through each individual's lens of experience.

Ask how your own lens distorts your view.  Ask how you will influence the experience that will shape the other person's perspective.  Ask, and know your answer will likewise be colored and distorted, leaving us to wonder at the veracity of our world, leaving us to anticipate conflict with that other person's distorted and deluded world, leaving us with only forbearance, compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness as our tools to soften the sharp edges of the inevitable conflict.  

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.