Still kicking the tires on org-mode, but I don’t think it’s for me right now. The
main attraction I can see is To-do list/calendar/agenda integration, but we live and
die by a shared iOS calendar and it takes a fair amount of idiocy to integrate it
into anything outside of the Apple ecosystem, even if I just need read-only access
to it for the sake of visibility. At most, I’ll take a look at the Obsidian-like
features to see if they’re something I can use, or heck, revisit Obsidian
itself. These systems are a bit like shopping for new notebooks. I love the idea of
them, but have been fair-to-middling in my long-term adoption of them.
As it is, I have a couple of notebooks I go back to semi-regularly: one for
work-related stuff, and another one that serves as a sort of spiritual journal which
goes with me on retreats, though I’ve been known to scribble in it occasionally at
home. A third notebook has sort of emerged as the place where I keep my homily
notes. I may or may not refer to them while I’m speaking, but the act of writing them
down with a pen helps me keep the main points in mind. I used a note-taking app on an
iPad for a few years and it wasn’t bad, but I still prefer the low-tech/high-reward
touch of pen and paper.
I started The Last Invention. About done
with the first episode and it’s pretty good so far. Andy Mills was on The Dispatch
the other day discussing the series, if you want to listen to a nice overview. It was
good to get a reminder of how submerged in the tech landscape I still am, relative to
how not submerged everyone else is. At the same time, I tend to be closer to
nuts-and-bolts of technology without paying as much attention to the macro-trends
which, to my ears, blend a little too easily with marketspeak and investor hype. I
mean, one flavor of AI accelerationist seems to think that the goods to be obtained -
a world of complete abundance made possible by AGI and a massive robotic workforce -
are worth the short-term costs. Maybe they are, but I’m skeptical. Fallen man and all
of that. Even if the promise does comes true, then what? Do they believe that
everyone alive simply transitions to a sort of eternal retirement of leisure? AGI
will usher in an end to disease and suffering? Paradise on Earth, almost within
reach?
I’m skeptical for a few reasons. The first is practical. The hype-cycle around AI
right now feels exactly like the early 90’s, the point at which the commercial
Internet really took off and became A Real Thing. Many predictions were made, and a
few of them came true, but most - if not all - of those initial market darlings faded
away or collapsed once it became clear how those pesky customers would actually start
using things. And that cycle was preceded by the first big chip explosion which was
led, at the time, by firms like Fairchild Semiconductor. Unless you’re into deep
tech, you’ve probably never heard of them, but you’ve certainly of the companies
started or run by Fairchild alumni: Intel, among others. I remember walking the
tradeshow floor at two of the biggest Internet-related events in the mid-90s and I
can only remember two or three of the hundreds of companies in the exhibit space.
Our ability to accurately predict tech trends seems a bit suspect to me. No one at
Internet World saw the rise of social media, and no one riding the initial wave of
social media saw the directions it would take us or the damage it would inflict on
society. About the only prediction I’d confidently make about AI is that it will
certainly change things, and those things are likely to be related to porn since
that’s the gravity well that all tech seems to orbit.
Secondly, and maybe this is just an artifact of being a slightly grumpy old man in
the tech space, tech never seems to work quite as well in practice as it does in the
advertisements and investor presentations. Have you tangled with a printer lately?
Exactly. Given the inexorable urge to monetize All The Things, the AGI-powered robot
in your home is likely to be belting out commercial jingles 24-7 or stocking the fridge
with products willing to pay for best placement, unless you’re willing to pay for
Robotic Help Platinum, offering a Reduced Advertisement Experience for only
59.99/month. If the urge to innovate is strong, the urge to enshittify has proven to
be nearly as strong.
But the reason I’m not feeling the imminent-Eden scenario is that sin is still a
thing, and that however hard the AI folks want to believe otherwise, humans will find
ways to sin and will keep doing so until the Lord returns to wrap it all up. We will,
of course, be focused on this very thing this Sunday. Envy, wrath, lust, acedia…all
of it will find a home in whatever place we inhabit, however shiny and new it happens
to look.
To be clear - and I say this as someone who uses chatbots pretty regularly for
various things - I think the tech is pretty neat and has the potential, even if it
doesn’t progress any further than it has today. Like all tools, it has its proper
place and we should think prudentially about where it’s used, and by whom, and for
what purposes. Any tool can be abused, and serve to do injury to the dignity of the
human person; this one is no exception, and carries the additional dangers of being
opaque in its operation while simultaneously presenting itself as coldy
impartial. I’m thankful for the work that the Holy See has done in this area and
recommend the book produced by the AI Working group: Encountering Artificial
Intelligence.
