I was thinking about something the other day. The entirety of my writing career hasn’t really been about educating people—although I’d like to think that occasionally some people have learned something useful from my words. Being a writer of fiction and poetry, especially, is more about shifting how someone feels.
It’s about creating that magical bridge between the fluidity of their minds and the static words on the paper (or screen), a connection where a certain alchemy takes place. I’ve noticed this sacred alchemy happen within myself when I read an author I really enjoy. If I’m feeling down sometimes words lift my mood, if I’m feeling “stuck” in life words can sometimes open up my mind’s eye to an invaluable “a-ha moment”, sometimes the words are impactful in some hard-to-describe ethereal way and they give me goosebumps.
"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create." - Leonard I. Sweet
I hope that somewhere along the line in these last thirty-four years of writing something I’ve written has had this kind of impact on you. I think this is the goal that all of us writers share and strive for. In the end we’re all just really trying to shift readers’ energy, or feelings, one way or another.
Something I read last week has made me feel the familiar pangs of melancholy. It’s been forecasted that the mass market for most purely human creative content will be fading away within the next couple of years. It’s predicted that most YouTube channels will increasingly shift to content created, at least partially, by AI within the next three years. I see most creative professions changing drastically within the next decade. Inevitably, the audiences will grow smaller for words written solely by a human as this kind of writing becomes even more of a niche than a necessity.
Each new technological wave we experience as humans is a double-edged sword. It’s as if we must trade away certain things that made us, in order to gain others that will help to usher us to our next phase. Is it worth it? Is it ultimately good or bad? I guess that is always the existential question.
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" by Eleanor Roosevelt
With the internet we gave up our privacy for convenience. With social media we surrendered many of our deep, social connections for shallower connections with a greater number of people. With AI it will likely be most of our professions that we’re surrendering. This will be infinitesimally more complex for us to navigate because, historically, so much of our self-worth is tied up in our professions. All of us, sooner or later, will have to face the realization that how we make our living doesn't define us and learn how best to deal with it.
Trying to predict the future is like looking out a frosted window pane. Shapes are easy to make out but finer details aren’t always as visible. I decided long ago that I’ll continue to write as long as people are willing to read my words and for as long as I think my words have the ability to shift how people feel.
I’m thrilled to have been born when I was. As a member of Generation X, I got to experience the world long before computers and technology were so prevalent in our daily lives. I see our generation as the bridge between the old world and the new. Hopefully our unique position in time and perspective will give us some value.
If one day it all this ends I’ll adopt the attitude of being happy it happened instead of merely being sad it’s ending. Whether it was just good luck, good timing, or good karma—I’m profoundly grateful for the rare opportunity I’ve been afforded to write, and occasionally shift energy, for over the last thirty plus years. I’m looking to our horizon with much more optimism than trepidation. I’m seeing many hints that the things we’ll gain could be greater than what we’re giving up but time will be the judge of that. If it all goes the right way we'll be moving away from a world of scarcity to one of almost unimaginable abundance.
Life is about new chapters. For now I’ll trudge on, continuing to enjoy each day I get to open the laptop and bang on these keys. Still, I'd be lying if I said it won't make me sad to see a future where all of this goes the way of the horse and buggy. It’s the strangest of new worlds we’re stepping into but, as we humans always do, we’ll figure things out as we go along.
The next decade of change will create a world almost unrecognizable to the one we live in today. Hang on and find ways in which you can ground yourselves because it will be a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions. This is a wonderful and beautiful life. It's important that we get this right. Perhaps the best legacy to leave is a future that our ancestors will be thank us for. I still think we live in the most exciting age ever. In many ways we’ll have such a distinct advantage, you and I, because we’ll be the last of the analogs.
are awakening
to realize the world
is outpacing our
ability to imagine it.
turning back now,
we’re nearly on
the precipice,
almost obsolete.
relish in the final
moments of our
spectacular imperfections.
the last
of the analogs.
We’ve played
games with misfits,
our language
dangerously flawed,
a breeding ground
for misunderstanding
yet it catalogues each
of our unrealistic dreams,
illogical loves,
silly pet peeves, and
every f*cking burden.
meet
the
neuron.
to know what it
feels like to
have private thoughts,
not to have chips
in our brains,
algorithms filtering
out our ticks and our shame,
the last to truly know
what it’s like to feel pain.
WE ARE
the last
of the analogs.
I feel this so strongly in my mind. Angelou is one of the greatest writers we'll ever see.
While you're older than me (I'm just South of 40) - I feel like we are fundamentally of the same generation, in terms of the rise of the machines, competent in the exponential digitisation of everything, while simultaneously able to see the value in the traditional media, mediums, and objects that the present is built upon.
Causality, context.
With the black box of the digitals, I fear that causality and the why (and perhaps, the meaning) will be lost.
She's one of the greats, for sure! Those who've experience both worlds, the modern and new have a great responsibility. It’s like we’re bilingual. Maybe the challenge is to keep anchoring AI’s outputs to human values, like storytelling or shared history, so we don’t lose the thread of meaning in the noise and chaos of this transformation?
It may sound abrupt, but I'm glad I won't have to be around to deal with much of the fallout (or success) of it in 50-70 years. :P Or, I'll be too senile by that point :P
It's going to be a very different world to be sure! Even when I'm "elderly" in 20-30 years society will be drastically different from ours today. It won't be all bad.
I wonder what the future will be like. Will people lose their identity? Will our thoughts be created for us? It is definitely uncharted waters ahead of us.
There are SO many questions and it's frustrating because all we can really do is guess about what the future will actually be like. I think there will still be good and bad like the world is today but there will be much more abundance in the future. The transition to the Age of AI is going to be chaotic until the governments of the world can realign their economies, social safety nets, and really all of society to this new model. They aren't preparing quickly enough. Once the realignment of society takes place it could be a very healing time for humanity.
I know about all the predictions for AI, but....
Would you want to look at a Sistine Chapel created by AI? Is it the perfection of the execution that inspires awe, or the human element? It is not the beautiful ceiling tourists flock to see. It is Michelangelo's inspiration, his pathos that moves us.
I think AI could easily simulate a work by Borges, but we don't appreciate Borges because he writes about labyrinths and eternal libraries. We read them because hewrote them, because we see his mind through his words.
Furniture has been machine made for decades. Still, we pay a premium for the handmade.
I'm old, and maybe my opinion will be written off as the opinion of someone from a lost generation. But I don't think so. Humans are social animals. We need to connect with other humans. Art is one way we do that.
Keep writing !!!
There is this indescribable magic spark in certain creative works that I'd hope AI will have a difficult time replicating. The spark is almost like a glimpse into a different realm. As a writer, tapping into this has been amazing experience. When it happens it feels almost like I'm just a channel for it.
I think human-created creative works and handcrafted things will remain a niche luxury into the next century but the audiences/customer base will shrink which will make it tougher for creatives to succeed. A lot of the aesthetics of the new world will be virtual/digital overlays, projected on lenses that we look out of. We'll be able to choose, individually, any theme we like (almost like mobile phone wallpaper) and will be able to be changed based on mood.
Above is a fairly widely accepted timeline of when AI will impact certain jobs. It may happen sooner, or possibly later if governments step in to delay the transition but I doubt that will happen since industry has such influence in most governments.
It's important for those of us from the older generations to voice our opinions now. Words of caution are a valuable counterbalance.
Thank yoU! I'll definitely keep writing in some way, shape, or form. : )
I remember when we were on Steemit, before the pandemic, I often shared some of your texts with my friends, and I even remember sharing one of your poems with my students. I mean, sometimes we think our words don't reach far, and then you find that a group of people in a country far away from yours are reading what you write. I'm not worried about AI writing a text; what really worries me is that human beings will stop being moved, not only by what they read, but also by what they see. The other day, I told my students how beautiful a sunset was, and one of them told me that the ones generated by AI were better, ha ha ha. I'm concerned that without being robots, we behave like them. Hugs, my friend
Those were the days! Just thinking about them make me smile. When I hear stories like that I have to pinch myself. It's very flattering that you connected with something I wrote so deeply that you shared it with your students that are so far away, geographically. The younger generations are the ones I really worry about. Even mobile phones have made face-to-face communication and expressing themselves emotionally sometimes difficult. Many kids are more comfortable on their devices than living in the real world. Thanks for making me feel better today! I wish you a wonderful weekend my friend!
Path has been exciting, from young waiting for the mail man to deliver a letter you waiting for, now almost instant spontaneous reaction one treads far more carefully with words used.
As my Mom always said, "the pen is mightier than the sword" use words wisely in fear taken out of context. Yet here we are with no postal system to talk about, no more exciting stamps on mail, we carry on learning.
Thanks for enlightening content to ponder.
You're welcome! Thanks for the comment. We live in a very interesting timeline. I remember thinking how lucky people who were born in the beginning of the twentieth century were to have witnessed so much change—autos, electricity, air travel, the space race. We'll live through more change than they did but so many aren't aware of it, even now. Technology seemed mostly static, or grew slowly, up until the dawn of the internet but this phase will unfold lightning fast in comparison.
Technology has moved very fast, hold onto reality by not being sucked into screens, always enjoy thought of capability if done with good intention.
I am not into poetry, but this is one of the rare poems I was able to grasp and appreciate. Keep writing, you are good at it! I am also a gen X and I remember my first computer that I tried at my dad's work in his university lab. It had green letters on the screen and was one of the first PCs and was considered cutting edge at the time... I recall assembling my first computer ZX Spectrum that had a tape recorder as it's storage device.
I spent my career as a software engineer all 25 years of it going from entry level to software engineer principal before switching into a slightly less technical solutions architect role. I can see the writing on the wall as well, human software development is also becoming obsolete...
Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm glad you connected with it! My first computer was similar to the one you describe. It was a Tandy (Radio Shack) from the early 1980's. It had the memory cartridge as well.
Oh yes, most professions and trades will be handed to AI and robots. You're smart to have the foresight to realize that. Us Gen X'rs are lucky to be at the point in our careers that we are. It'll be a little easier for us than it will be for younger people but, sooner or later, governments of the world will need to put plans into place to counter the massive job losses.
For some reason now the song from Dirty Dancing is playing in my head. I've, had, the time of my life...
That song brings back some memories!
Yes! As long as you enjoyed the journey, it was worth it!
As a Gen Xer myself I totally feel your nostalgia. If there's any time I'd go back to us pre Internet days.
Only online. On a positive, bright note there will always, always be analog creators. It's a human need.
Life was so different back then. There was something to be said about not getting news instantaneously and not being able to be reached 24/7.
I hope you're right about that. It would be great to see a renaissance in literature by human creators. I've certainly experienced a massive tapering off of book sales in the past five years. That might have more to do with dwindling attention spans and changing tastes though.
#hive #posh