Saturday Rant — To Chat or Not to Chat, That Is the GPT.*
When Fogy was young—more than sixty years ago—the telephone line to his house was what they called a party line. No, not the fun kind with balloons and cake, but one shared by several households. Anyone could simply lift the receiver and listen in on someone else’s conversation. Of course, nobody ever admitted to doing so—it was terribly frowned upon. Still, we were taught to pick up the receiver gently and check if the line was free before daring to place a call.
Compare that to today, when we can be practically anywhere, without wires or walls, and ring up just about anyone—even while a thousand others do the same.
And that got me thinking about this whole question of AI. Yes, I know... another rant about artificial intelligence. But let’s be honest—it’s the flavour of the times, isn’t it?
More than a rant, though, this is a reflection.
How much of what we use today do we take for granted?
When you turn on a light, do you ever think about candles and oil lamps—how we used to strike a match and adjust a wick just to see? Light had to be lit. Brighter meant more effort.
Everything took longer. Everything was longer—because to do anything, there was so much to do first.
You couldn’t just pop down to the supermarket and grab ready-made pasta with tomato sauce. That was haute cuisine, not homemaking. And the average housewife (for it was usually her burden) had to know how to make it all from scratch.
iFood? Forget it. Deliveries were once a month—if you were lucky.
Ready-made clothes? For the rich. The rest of us bought linen by the yard, cut it carefully, stitched it by hand, and hoped it fit. Animal skins were an option, too—if you knew how to cure them.
And transport? These feet were made for walkin’ (Nancy Sinatra had boots, but she was lucky). A nearby town four hours away? Better start before sunrise. The horse and buggy was a speed upgrade—but again, privilege.
Trains were miraculous. Loud, steamy, dirty—but wondrous. Always on track, never on time.
Sea voyages took weeks, and the only things that flew were birds.
So should we trust robots and AI? Well—everything else eventually became part and parcel of daily life. So why not?
Get used to it, folks. Trudging down to the cowshed for a pail of milk is history. As is counting on your fingers or reading whole books when a well-trained algorithm can hand you the summary in 500 words or less.
Modern tech is here to stay—and woe betide those who don’t get on this evolutionary train.
Cheers,
Fogy
No comments:
Post a Comment