reflections on a
january morning
Some days I think it all comes down to self-preservation. The things we do to survive. Then I remember that it isn’t about anything at all, there are no answers, only questions. And survival is such a relative term these days. Read a book about the way life was lived 100 years ago, or 200, and survival becomes an entirely different word. By necessity, survival used to be a physical accomplishment. For so many of us these days, it’s a mental one.
I find this fascinating.
The internet was birthed to take up that slack, the distance between all my basic needs are met and now what do I do with all these thoughts? We share everything these days, and still, everyone seems to be looking for something. Already it’s changing the world.
I find this fascinating and frightening, all at once.
The other day I heard a story on the news about a program that’s being developed that will take all of a person’s social media input and, after they die, use it to create an artificial intelligence type of interaction, creating new output to mimic and offer new things that person might say. Using everything we have ever said on the internet to re-create our personality. It was presented as a way to cushion grief, so that people could still have a relationship with someone they have lost, at least virtually speaking.
I keep thinking about this, wondering if we would all like the artificial self that would be created by the things we type and offer up on all these venues. How true would it be to who we really are? Would it be a better version of us, or a worse one?
Again, fascinating. Again, frightening. Also: enchanting.
I sit and watch Mother Nature outside my window, here on my own tiny piece of earth, and then I watch the whole word inside this window, a computer screen that contains infinity. No wonder my brain hurts.
I drink my tea and watch the birds forage for their breakfast and think that I should walk outside and feed them.
And then I start thinking about survival all over again.
There is so much information. When what we really need is food.
At least that’s the way I think it goes.
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January 15th, 2015 at 9:55 am
Once again, you have put into words what I am experiencing and want to express. I don’t like the idea of taking what I put online and recreating my persona for anyone to converse with. Kind of creepy. Some things, like death, are best handled the old fashioned way — grieve. Besides, I already do this in my head with my parents. I probably make them more wise than they actually were but I see nothing wrong with embellishment. 🙂
January 15th, 2015 at 1:14 pm
Fascinating idea really, the idea of whether what we write online is a true reflection of who we are–and your other thought–the AI one–it sounds so like the “internet of people” I would like to think I can still surprise people–smiles to you
January 15th, 2015 at 1:37 pm
that artificial intellegence stuff is scary….i had joked with an intern once that we needed to make talking tombstones with prerecorded messages, you just put your code in….
life is much different…our dependence on the internet is scary…should be ever have a sun spot or emp pulse that knocks it out, we will be in chaos….
January 15th, 2015 at 4:34 pm
I saw a film recently about the very thing you talk about here. In it a woman ordered a male figure that looked like her husband who had died and his interactions with her were taken from social media sites. It scares me too, in fact I was talking to my husband just the other night how frightening the whole technology side of things is. Sometimes I have the urge to disconnect from technology but in doing so you would end up disconnecting from friends and family. So much to ponder.
January 15th, 2015 at 7:34 pm
These days I feel the way you do…. So much… Too much…. My brain hurts, I want to walk away from it and savor the silence. There are a lot of questions but not answers……. I’m not sure how I feel about an artificial self going on…. it’s strange and yet may offer some comfort.