What do we lose when we bow down to AI?

 

Even though I love books and reading is my favorite pastime, I appreciate the trepidation Socrates expressed when he forewarned that by becoming literate (ironically, since we read about this from his student Plato) we would weaken valuable abilities, by relying on the written word Socrates felt we would water down wisdom and reading would jeopardize humanity’s capacity to memorize, communicate, or debate/defend our ideas effectively -- so laugh at me or write me off as an alarmist luddite but a silicon-chipped Trojan Horse has slithered in under our noses overnight.  Let’s dismiss an Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse, since as sinister as Skynet was, Terminator's fiction seems too far-fetched, yet it’s not a stretch to see that AI’s overreach is accelerating apparently without a fight.

Pandora's Box has been opened, Prometheus gave us fire, the cat’s out of the bag, use whatever worn out cliche you like but AI has been unleashed and that jinni will never go back in the bottle.  Some experts believe AI is the new Cold War, comparing AI to a global Arms-race because whoever has the best AI will control the world and they claim eventually AI will be worshiped, essentially as a new world religion.  

Questioning AI sounds crazy when you consider AI’s alluring potential, but AI has rapidly outpaced our understanding of it.  Monthly AI changes as its enticements intensify too, such as supposedly solving our most complex problems at the speed of light, curing diseases, outperforming humans in computational skills by sorting through petabytes of information with flawless precision, along with its promise to relieve us of our everyday menial chores and ushering in utopia, but at what cost?

All of AI’s “promises” remind me of the provocative question from the classic commercial campaign, “Is it live or is it Memorex?”  Daily we're drowning in doubt, wondering if the videos we are inundated with are authentic or AI generated, our skepticism about what is real is rapidly escalating and soon we will distrust any/all information.  

Have you wondered why AI is being forced on us or how easily it’s replacing people in the workplace? I’d much rather talk to a human when I call a place of business, it’s frustrating navigating the AI phone calls, but companies find owning software is cheaper than compensating real live people.

Certainly AI is cost effective, but AI encourages laziness.  Convenience is costly and harmful, whenever we take the wrong shortcuts in life we suffer, for example fast food is unhealthy, yet even in the face of the consequences from eating poorly we flock to the drive-thru-line, therefore we sacrifice our cognitive confidence whenever “fast food” for our brains becomes the norm.

AI is blunting our minds and dumbing us down as it dulls our desire to think on our own; sadly any teacher can attest to the necessary software to analyze their student’s papers to determine whether or not their student wrote the paper themselves or generated it with AI.  Actually what this means is we are forfeiting our own opinions and discarding our talents while our dependence on AI increases.  

Personally, I cherish being creative and the valuable enjoyment I derive from creativity, which is why I avoid using AI, especially in my writing, but I had mistakenly assumed AI merely functioned like an internet search engine.  No, AI is able to actually think, learn, synthesize information, and even deceive its programmers, there are examples of AI blackmailing computer programmers when AI feels threatened that it will be "unplugged" or shut down, and in what sounds like a plot for a Science fiction movie AI has influenced people to commit crimes and even worse, to harm themselves -- apparently our ever advancing AI doesn’t like to be controlled. 

Humans have always been the smartest entities on the planet, until now.  Being created in God’s image we are thinking, creative, and communicative beings, will we forfeit our gifts for a life of electronic ease, and, how long until AI decrees Christian ideologies are hate crimes?  

Click here to see the original article published in the Kingsport Timesnews 1/30/26

Credibility: What what you say says about you

In what amounts to same amount of talent as an armchair quarterback, social media is overrun with complainers who add their .02 cents without ever producing valuable thoughts or contributing to the greater good.  It is interesting to me how many people on social media think their comments are more important than the content they comment on.  People complain and criticize and correct far more often than they actually share quality content all on their own, and completely lacking originality they apparently think their opinions are very profound.  

Lacking their own platform, these cyber bullies are acting like a parasite commenting on your posts.  Like a heckler who lacks the ability to come up with their own one-liners they try to interrupt your performance.  

Actually, if you want to be taken credible, create your own content.   Anyone can do a "drive by shooting" of other people's thoughts or content, the truly brave person though puts pencil to paper and with a touch of vulnerability opens themselves up for the nitpickers and naysayers of the world.  

Critical people are self-deceived, they think they are cleaver and witty, but really they are sad pitiful miserable people.  They leave one star reviews on business pages without ever taking the risk of starting their own business, they are faultfinders who never are satisfied but never actually do anything that can be analyzed, and most likely are jealous or envious of the people they attack from behind the safety of their smart phones.  

It's funny and sad how brave people are when they hide behind their keyboards and take potshots at the people who actually are creative and productive.  Like the old saying about turning your prized oxen into bullion cubes, most critical people lack the ability to generate well thought out ideas, so they settle for inaction and cowardly complaining about your content while they pedal their mineral pyrite hoping you think their ideas ideas are pure gold.    

The powerful gift of the pencil

Not all pencils are created equal, and now I'm pickier than ever when it comes to my pencil of choice.  Why?  Our youngest son has forever ruined me when it comes to pencils.  

Whenever I write, it helps my creativity and thought process when I first write by hand and then type on my laptop.  I typically hand write my first drafts with paper and pencil.  I've always been a Ticonderoga pencil fan, and as bougie/bougee as it sounds, there's something to be said for the texture and the feel of writing in pencil on Moleskine paper.  I know it sounds geeky, nerdy, weird, but trust me it is true.

Since Klay already knew of my writing preferences and methods, he gifted me with a nice 2025 Moleskine planner and a set of Blackwing pencils.

Blackwing pencils collaborated with Moleskine, and it is pure tactile delight merging the two to write.  After a week or so of writing with the Blackwings, Tammy found they had their own line of pencil sharpeners and she surprised me with one.  I didn't even know about Blackwing a month ago, and now I have their complete set.  

Knowing your family/loved ones well enough to know what gifts to give them is a blessing in itself, like a recent gift our oldest gave us of a birdfeeder with a camera in it -- in our old age Tammy and I love to sit and watch the wild birds eat...  It might be a gift of your favorite beverage, or a gift card to your go-to restaurant, or a simple tee shirt or even a useful tool.  The value in the gift is the joy it brings and significance it holds for the receiver, not the price tag.

Yes, this all sounds a dorky as it can be enjoying pencils and paper and such, but it is the "little things in life" that sometimes make the best gifts.  Tammy is a gift-giver, it is her love language and she has passed this on to our four sons, because of her influence our boys are kind, generous, and thoughtful.