Automate This

 

    "Automation is the work of the devil," I say thru gritted teeth as I read yet another account of machines taking control in the news.

    "Hmm what?" Ben mutters, aroused from his nap.

    " I blame our modern ills on the industrial revolution," I declare.

    "Oh not again," Ben yawns, shaking the last of sleep out of his leaves.

    "Seriously, the whole idea that automation will make our lives better is just a Cartesian wet dream. In reality it's robbing people of retaining or learning new skills to the point of laziness."

    "Says the woman using a computer keyboard to write instead of pen and paper," he says with some cheek.

    "Yes, the same woman who waters you weekly," I retort.

    "Oh forgive me all powerful giver," He grovels in mock humility.

    How is it possible all my friends are smart asses?

    "As I was saying, because of auto dialing, people can't remember phone numbers so they are out of luck if they are separated from their phone in a crisis. Now there are self driving cars, automatic grammar correction-because the dumb ass didn't learn it properly in school- we have been sold on the idea machines will make our life easier but it  just widens the disconnect with the real world," I sigh in exasperation and lean back in my chair.

    "Well, I don't have arms so I welcome the automation, I bet there are a lot of disabled folks who would love the self driving car and Amazon or Google devices, It's not all bad," Ben ventures.

    "Then those devices are used out of necessity not convenience," I counter.

"What's wrong with talking to a TV remote or Alexa, aside from the insidious intrusion into our priv- ok bad example," Ben stops and there is silence.

    "You know as much I have a problem with the white patriarchal bias of the book Sapiens, the author Yuval Harai does point to the danger of giving control to artificial intelligence, the idea that machines can make better decisions that humans is so. . . "

    "Human," Ben finishes.

    "Talk about a God complex. How can we end this idiocy?" I stop there lest I fall into the deep well of philosophical and ethical consequences.

    "Get back to nature, somewhere along the line humans decided they were above it all, that plants and animals were just another resource to plunder. It's like thinking your arm is separate from your liver, It's all interconnected. Do you know trees talk to each over great distances?" Ben is on a roll.

    "You mean like fungi?" I see what he means.

    "Yeah man, be like the mushroom, grow in manure and spread your awareness to everything around you," he says, sounding like some hippie guru and promptly goes back to sleep.

    Sometimes I wonder who is the teacher here. I shut off the computer and look out the windows at the trees, the leaves turning bright colors in the fall air.