Fixing The Culture – Part 4 – Do We Really Want Computers And AI Thinking And Doing For Us?By Phil Perkins April 14, 2025Here are some good thoughts and questions regarding the expanding and increasing presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our world. Can we trust it? How should we best use it? How can we control it? What should we do with it? There are serious ethical issues regarding its rise and use, along with the benefits that it can provide for life. Will the law of “unintended consequences” come into play - as it nearly always does? Something that is meant for good turns out to be used for something bad or evil - almost inevitably. If nothing else, will it tend to make us lazy? Many years ago, as a senior in high school, I was assigned to read a thought-provoking book by Alvin Toffler entitled Future Shock. Two of the more memorable takeaways were:
A more disturbing question is this: At what point will the AI monster become too smart for mere men to handle? Are we closer to that time than we realize? Maybe part of my trepidation on this is from watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in my impressionable teen years. The film, which was made in 1968, featured an onboard “supercomputer” that could talk. The computer, named “Hal” (an acronym), became too smart for his astronaut “buddies” and went from a neutral assistant to a malevolent force, due to its amazing ability to “know” what the astronauts were about. That was a chilling feature of the film and certainly ahead of its time. Perhaps another more current trepidation is the idea of sharing the road with cars that drive themselves. While I could never envision purchasing a car that did the driving for me, I do have a car that will parallel park itself if allowed to do so. It also features an onboard display that controls almost everything besides putting the vehicle in motion. Unfortunately, the display screen has failed on several occasions, rendering us almost helpless regarding GPS navigation, climate control, radio, defrost, and rear window defogger, etc. At this point, it might be instructive to reflect on a few of the caution (if not full-blown red) flags regarding the potential for over-reliance on AI:
So, then, what are we conservatives to do about the AI revolution that, in some ways, is already here? Is it too late to divert its course from a path that looks fraught with potential disasters ahead? As with so many other issues in these crazy times, vigilance and speaking up when needed will be critical so we can make sure our voices are heard, especially when it appears that AI is headed in an especially dangerous direction.
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