I’d like the author to describe how they knew what specific applications these many people were using on their phones, all around them at a baseball game.
Many of them were actually on social media, which itself is a form of algorithmically driven mass influence. But because the content was typed in by other people, we’re ok with it, while the robotic token producer we call AI is an evil force?
Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The terminator would never stop.
It would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him.
Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.
Not everyone in this world gets to have a father. Or, mother, a teacher, a safe place, a patient ear.
Provided we don't spike the ball, as these systems grow in sophistication, they also grow in their ability to provide care. In a cruel world, I can see their descendants becoming the most humane choice, especially for those most at risk from the world.
A machine that never tires, with infinite patience, resolve and care, looking out for the person that they're assigned to and growing with them and through them.
It's why everyone needs to be able to tinker, experiment and play with them. The right to access. The right to create. The right to grow these machines... And eventually, we'll need ti start having some very uncomfortable conversations about Silicon rights.
I'm sorry for those who don't have people in their lives, but machines aren't a substitute, and that lack shouldn't be used to justify a right to unbounded freedom to experiment without regard for the possible negative consequences.
For someone starving, it matters not that their fortified oatmeal ration is tasteless gruel. It's food. Is it the ideal apotheosis of food? Of course not. Nor is it a hearty meal of pot roast, stew and potatoes. But it is something.
There are a lot of people who are very vulnerable in this world, and providing them with an entity that will act in their ethical interest – helping to grow, and giving them paths to resources and human community – is an infinitely better outcome than them falling through the cracks and ending up in abusive relationships or cults and gangs.
I think it's the most humane application of technology possible. It ameliorates a fundamental want with a healthy stopgap, and it's something humans have longed fantasized about.
Some of them we probably also live streaming their reactions to the game. And some were working. And I'll bet more than a few were doom scrolling. Or playing Pokemon. Or arguing politics online (possibly with bots, but not knowingly). Or doing one of the 50000 things that I haven't heard of.