The Wind

Western civilization has long been in a battle with Nature.  We desire to beat back the wilderness and impose order.  Some of this is to make the world safer, but much is for the sake of convenience and comfort.  It has brought us to a point where we consider Nature to be an unnatural condition for humans.  Ponder that a moment.

Whether we like it or not, we are witnessing the flowering of Artificial Intelligence after many years of thinking that such a thing was a distant dream.  It is already disrupting life for some of us, and will continue to do so at an increasing pace.  One of the most disturbing aspects of this new technology is that even the most savvy scientists don’t fully understand how AI arrives at its conclusions. Its “mental” processes are mysterious, and the results it produces can be alarming.

The notion that ties these two elements together is in how helpless we can feel when confronted by forces we can’t control.  But, dear friends, there will always be things in this world that we can’t control.  It is better for our peace of mind to let go of the need to control when faced with things larger than us.  Both Nature and AI are such.  Rage against the wind if you must, but it will blow just the same.