"Are you using it correctly, or does it do your thinking for you? It won’t save you if you can’t think for yourself. A true critical thinker doesn’t need it at all."
On and on it goes. A cacophonous blather of voices muttering instant doom over the newest technological gold rush. How original to take the side of the largest majority in human history: the doubters.
They feel threatened—and perhaps they should be. One person can now create a dream (or a nightmare) with just a few strands of code, taking the place of entire teams. Who are these threatened people, anyway? Are they the ones who whisper of innovation, or stagnation? Do they want to streamline repetition and focus on the creative solutions of the 21st century, or do they merely want a system that lets inefficient people grow their asses into a desk chair for thirty years?
Consider this: when you read a classic like The Odyssey, misinterpret its key themes, and take your flawed account as gospel—does that not make you artificially intelligent? Smart according to your own misunderstandings, not facts? Are you not equally artificially intelligent when you adopt entire worldviews based purely on conjecture? So many swear they are geniuses, while their life choices and wardrobes state otherwise. If we all simply decide we’re brilliant, does that make it so? Or is that just a convenient form of artificial intelligence—delusion, at the very least?
It’s artificially intellectual to sign away your life for forty years to guarantee an income that barely lasts until your inevitable retail store application. Those relying on artificial intelligence believe the system will magically correct itself. The artificially intellectual believe that the very people who broke the system will fix it.
It’s these same artificial intellectuals who bloviate online—on rented land, in identically designed studios—regurgitating the exact same talking points ad nauseam, as if mere repetition to thousands of half-listeners equates to "influencing." I suppose if your only goal was to get me to watch another video, then yes, you’ve influenced me.
It is beyond boring to listen to people moan about the dangers of artificial intelligence when no one seems bothered by their own. We aren't afraid of the terrible choices we make through poor logic or a lack of critical thinking. Nope—as usual, something external must be the cause of all our misery: "The AI is taking our jobs!"
Never mind that many employees made themselves irrelevant liabilities long ago by showing up late, high, or drunk—or just not showing up at all. And even when present, they operate at a sluggish 10 percent. The "quiet quitting" started on day one.
The use of AI doesn’t guarantee that your output will be better—true. But your refusal to use it has yet to prove that you don’t need it.
Before you panic about algorithms taking over the world, take a look in the mirror. If you’re afraid of being replaced by a computer, maybe it’s time to upgrade the operating system between your ears.
💙 Chris
