Fight Against The Machine

“John Henry said to the captain, a man ain’t nothin’ but a man, but before I let that steam drill beat me down, gonna die with a hammer in my hand…” Traditional folk song

According to the Library of Congress, the song, “John Henry” was originally a work song that made its way into the classic American folk tradition. It has been recorded by many artists. Now get this—- according to AI it was written by several different performing artists who had nothing to do with its authorship, but rather have merely recorded the song. When I googled “who is the author of ‘John Henry,'” the first option that appeared was an AI mishmash of false information. How many people would have accepted that as fact? My guess is, among those with little or no knowledge of the song, most would be satisfied with that non-answer. And so, day in and day out we fill our minds with garbage.

Too lazy to read the report? Get an AI summary. Too illiterate to write one? No problem. AI will do it for you. Too scared or cheap to see a real therapist? Get yourself an AI one. Too socially impaired to engage in a relationship? Get an AI girlfriend.

Thanks to technology, many creative tasks, including writing, are being replaced by soulless automatons. Critical, analytic and creative writing could soon become things of the past–and along with them, thinking. Much damage has already been done by letting machines do the work for us, and I fear we are only at the beginning.

Fortunately, there will remain some creative, original thinkers who sweat over tasks such as writing. The rest, for whom social media has replaced education, will take the easy route. In doing so, they will further deepen their ignorance as machines replace their minds. Thus evolves the perfect social climate in which charlatans prevail.

For as long as this blog lasts, it will be 100% natural, no AI ingredients. That’s not because I consider myself such a great thinker or writer, but because, at any level of competence, engaging in a creative process is so much fun. I have tried my hand at various creative modalities with varying degrees of success and have taken pleasure and satisfaction from pursuing each one of them.

Not least of all, writing.

What’s so great about writing? Rather than to rehash what I have already said, I refer you to one of my early blogs, “Why I Write” https://anauthorsinnermind.blog/2018/07/01/why-i-write/

It’s pretty much all there. When people think about life’s pleasures, often they think in terms of what they can consume, but, just as it’s better to give than to receive, it’s more enjoyable to create than to, clam-like, sit around indiscriminately sucking in whatever comes along. At least the clam filters out the toxins. To create is to be fully alive. “I think, therefore, I am” takes on new meaning in this era in which thinking has become optional. Writers know that few pleasures can rival the act of writing in its various forms and few activities are as gratifying as the creative process..

Creativity is the last bastion of being human. If we desist from it, we will all be nothing but walking waste producing machines. It is my hope the human race will wake up to this before it’s too late—If it isn’t already.