Living La Vida Loca

I clearly remember as I was growing up that the year 2000 seemed like a distant future. When I watched the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” I could not imagine how the world might look THAT foreign, and that computers would potentially behave as HAL did. Fast forward to today – January 2024 – and we have Siri, the Google lady, our Waze buddy, and Mr ChatGPT…all standing ready to educate and guide us…or is there really the potential for more nefarious intents? OK, I am not yet having nightmares about this, but many people I know are very, very nervous. I personally prefer to embrace the new technologies to make my world and the world around me more enjoyable, more humanitarian, more expansive. An eternal optomist? Perhaps.

I am using ChatGPT (v.4) to plan our trip mid-year to Japan. A few simple questions and Chat has provided me with so many incredible ideas and resources that we are now just adding some fine points to our itinerary and have the whole trip mapped out to our liking.

I’ve had a few conversations with Chat about various health issues our extended family is dealing with and while none of the information replaces counsel with medical teams, I’ve always gotten results that help me ask the right questions! I’m also very impressed when Chat tells me that it simply does not know enough to answer my question and refers me to other sources. An honest “friend”. 

My 93 year old father is a magician…really. He’s honed his craft for many years and I am consistently impressed by his ability to pull off mysterious tricks that make me wonder if he really can read minds. His new “assistant” is – you guessed it – ChatGPT. Dad is teaching Chat to help him find cards in a shuffled deck and who-knows-what else. I’ve unleashed a 2024 nonagenarian search team! Bless his heart.

Granted, I can think of some pretty awful ways that people could abuse this new-found computing power. When atomic energy was discovered, good and bad came of it. When the internet became widely accessible and social media developed, they proliferated pornography, doxing (online harassment), spreading misinformation, and self-image issues for young people. At the very same time, the internet and social media have connected patients with patients for emotional support; allowed e-commerce to bring resources that were historically unreachable to rural communities; connected like-minded humanitarians with opportunities to gather and do good things globally; and much more.

I am well-aware that some of the technological advances we have today are truly double-edged swords that can cut for good and for not- so-good. Do I think we have work to do on setting guardrails to protect ourselves from misuse – as with any tool? Absolutely. (I would not give my young granddaughters a sharp knife before they have good hand/eye coordination, can understand instructions on how it’s to be used and on what, and get their parents’ permission to teach them.). And Eve didn’t have the good sense to tell the snake to take a hike.

One woman’s opinion. Welcome to the future!