blog.jeffbloom.netJeff Bloom's Blog – Mullings on teaching, learning, schooling, society, ecology, systems,

spirituality, connections… Jeff Bloom’s Blog Mullings on teaching, learning, schooling, society, ecology, systems, spirituality, connections… Menu My Professional Website My Photography The Nook Metapatterns: The Pattern Underground The Exploratory Store Links Scroll down to content Posts Posted on April 15, 2024 April 16, 2024 The Inappropriate and Problematic Uses of Technology This posting is directed mostly at AI or Artificial Intelligence, but the AI acronym may more appropriately stand for Artificial Ineptness or Artificial Ignorance. Although I am going to outline briefly a few of the big issues, I do think AI could be used for some benefit in a rather small set of contexts. But these uses are as tools, not as a decision-makers or as some similar holders of power and control. An example I use as a simplistic demonstration of the limits of AI is one that involves the car I drive. It’s a 2017 base-model of the Toyota Corolla. It does not have a remote door opener. But, it does have some AI systems, such as an alarm for getting too close to an object in front of you, and it will apply the breaks, if it (AI) thinks you’re actually going to have a collision. Another AI system is the camera system for keeping you in the lane. The third system, which is related to the collision avoidance system involves radar that is used to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you while you have cruise control engaged. And, the fourth system uses the camera and radar to lower the bright lights when a car approaches and to turn them on when there are no cars in sight. I do like all four of these, but I don’t really need them, and I do not trust them. The lane control system often confuses tar repair lines in the middle of a lane for the real” lane markers, so you have to muscularly override the car’s attempt to move you back into the lane, which is actually moving you out of the lane. The collision avoidance system starts blaring if you’re rounding a curve with concrete construction barriers along the side of the road. Even though you are moving smoothly around the curve, the AI system thinks you’re going to collide with these barriers. The high beam control is never more than 60% accurate. It’ll think house lights are car lights and it’ll miss many oncoming cars. And, it almost never turns off high beams, when there are cars in front of you going in the same direction. As with any technology, the information we get from the technology needs to be confirmed by us, real, thinking, human beings. The next example is a bit more bothersome and important. I just got a notice from my home and car insurance company saying they were dropping the insurance for the home that is co-owned with one of our sons. His name is on the policy; he pays for that part of the bill; and he lives in the house. The reason for the notice was that we, the owners, were not living in the house. The reason this happened was, you may have guessed, the AI system the insurance company uses, checks for inconsistencies in policies, like home owners’ policies for home in which the owners don’t live. Such a task is far too time-consuming to be carried out by employees, so an AI system is great to have. But, when the AI system is the decision-maker, notice letter writer and mailer, there are huge problems. A human is more likely to catch such seeming discrepancies. The appropriate way to use AI is to have them send alerts to the humans who can check out and verify the situation. As it stands, AI decisions can drive customers away. I came within a few seconds of cancelling all of our policies with this company and going to another company. Pissed off customers are not good for business. Such situations are easy enough to avoid, if the corporate higher-ups cared enough. Such situations get even more critical and more dangerous when we have AI driving cars, making medical decisions, and other life-on-the-line contexts. AI can help go through huge amounts of data and information, and alerting people to specific areas of concern. But, it should be up to the people to make sense of the information and formulate plans of action, such as a treatment plan or surgery. The other pet-peeve area of concern I have is having AI write. Writing with a pen and paper, and writing on a computer, which is a bit behind handwriting, is a powerful means for deeper and more complex learning. As far back as I can remember, I always hated studying for tests, after which I never felt like I learned very much. But, when I had to write a paper, I felt like I had really learned a lot. And, that is still true today. I love to read and to write; and they usually go together. But, just having a computer write a paper for you is a complete waste and a huge act of aggression towards oneself. And, the same holds true of scientists and academics of all sorts, who use AI to write that paper that needs to get published. It’s just another sham and a terrible disservice to oneself and to ones’ readers. © 2004 by Jeffrey W. Bloom Posted on April 22, 2023 April 22, 2023 Life in the Fast Lane That’s Under Construction and Riddled With Mishaps and Distractions: What I’ve Been Thinking About, But Not Getting Done — PART 1 My Blog entries came to a screeching halt a year and half ago, although it seems much longer to me. Time seems to be moving very quickly and very slowly at the same time. It seems like I have a birthday every few months, but then events that happened not very long ago seem to have happened a much longer time ago. I blame some of this on age, but I’d rather not dwell too much on that three-letter word. My body is screaming at me that I’m getting older, but my mind — for the most part — still feels like 40. My life seems to have veered into two, or maybe more, intertwined worlds. One world is a surreal visionary combination of Salvador Dali, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini with twists of Luis Buñuel and David Lynch, while the other world is intensely real — whatever that means — and riddled with the suffering indicative of being alive, while also riddled with moments of joy and clarity. Surprisingly, these seemingly different worlds occur in conjunction with one another. The last year and a half, but actually more like seven years, has been a joyful, painful, insightful, and very bizarre and surreal period of time. In the midst of caring for one of my sons, who’s been chronically ill for 18 years and living his own version of a real—surreal, painful—joyful life, my own body’s aging issues — daily headaches, brain fog, and ongoing muscle and joint revolts, and a wide assortment of everyday life issues with home and car repairs, fighting with corporations who wrongly bill for services or goods not provided, and other issues that seem to be indicative of collapsing social systems. During this particularly intense past 18 months, I haven’t been particularly productive in terms of writing or working on other projects. I’ve started writing a book that has been gurgling along for a couple of decades. But, this project seems to have fallen into a rut in the fast lane construction zone. I’ve started a couple dozen articles and blogs, but they are backed up in long lines of bumper-to-bumper traffic. I’ve also dabbled in several photographic and multi-media projects, but most of these are still in various stages of development. How do you like these excuses for not accomplishing anything? But, this very question is a symptom of our real—surreal world. Accomplishing” is like the gnawing desire to speed along in the fast lane… weaving in and out of traffic… avoiding any connection to the real people in their cars, while tail-gating and cutting them off, barely avoiding collisions, just to get where you’re going a minute or two earlier. But, it’s an adrenalin-rush… that could be deadly… but rarely resulting ins a traffic stop and speeding ticket. Yesterday, I was keeping up with the flow of most of the traffic in a 65 mph...