Happy Pie Day!
Today, I want to tell you about Tolkien, artificial intelligence, and the trajectory upon which I am setting myself for the months and years ahead.
Hello, friends, neighbors, planetary fellows!
Today, I want to tell you about Tolkien, artificial intelligence, and the trajectory upon which I am setting myself for the months and years ahead.
But, first... check out our latest video on The Unenlightened Generalists YouTube channel! Katie's bringing the fire with this one.
The oligarchy (Trump & his corporate cronies) have their clutches in not only our economics and politics, but also our culture. Understanding the aesthetics of oligarchy can help us to see where their power comes from and maybe even do something about it....
Let me catch you up (there's fun to be had)
It has been some time since my last newsletter, but not for a lack of things occurring in my life, nor a lack of productivity. Rather than sublimate you beneath a wall of text, let me illustrate with a simple bullet-point list:
- I moved 3,000 miles.
- I helped bring my first child into this world.
- I completed my 2nd Master's degree. This one was a Master's of Library and Information Science and I specialized in knowledge management.
- I began a new job as a copywriter, quickly became the team's AI subject-matter expert, and then pivoted to a whole new team as the creative liaison for a very large and complex project involving that technology.
- I've made some lovely new friends.
- I've begun preparing some potential plans for a couple of business ventures (while the non-profit my wife and I have in mind continues to take slow shape in the distance).
And, honestly, I'm really cutting out not only the details, but a whole host of other aspects to the last 12 months of time.
For many years, time hardly seemed to move -- or, rather, I hardly seemed to move within it. Now, it's like a sudden plunge from a steep cliff into an unknown lake. There's exhilaration, terror, bemusement... all the hallmarks of a proper adventure.
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Speaking of Tolkien and adventure... one of my recent side-quests was forever enshrining my voice and words within the J.R.R. Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection at Marquette University.
You can listen to my interview, here!
This proved itself a simply fabulous little experience, and I'm honored to know that my humble contribution is part of this effort. If you feel that your life has been touched by Tolkien's work in some positive way, perhaps you should connect with the project as well?
Artificial Intelligence: Tool or bane?
Why not both?
It's funny to me that a self-avowed socialist-anarchist librarian fiction writer, who has spent a goodly time being skeptical of generative AI, has now become something of an expert in the topic.
But that skepticism is actually what makes me a perfect fit for the team I'm on. Not only am I coming from the perspective of "humanity first," I'm not starry-eyed about the promises being made. There are changes coming (they are already taking place), but the question of how we apply ourselves to meet those changes is the most interesting thing.
One of my favorite iconic figures from history, Sir Herbert Read, also found himself in a state of contradictions. A famous anarchist and also a knight of the realm, he refused to play into the stereotype of absolute self-assured identification with anyone else's idea of “right” and “wrong.”
My life, too, is a contradiction. I think I'll choose to enjoy that for a while.
If I had one piece of advice for the AI-fueled future, it would be... learn as much as you can. The more you dislike the technology, the more you need to learn about it. And if what you really dislike is the mixture of where this technology is being applied, coupled with its devastating effects on the environment? Well, all the more reason to be an expert in it. For at least as long as we continue to struggle through the capitalistic dystopia surrounding us, I want you to have every tool at your disposal.
I've written a bit about some of the dangers of AI. Beyond the big existential ones, there are localized issues, such as identity theft.
Odin Halvorson
But I haven't written enough about what you can be doing to use the tools freely available to you (the ones that aren't hoovering up your personal data) to improve your life. I know... in the face of ecological catastrophe, that might seem environmentally gauche. But the truth is that we need tools, more than ever, that allow us to do more with less. We're all tired, we're all fractured, but we also have the opportunity to make a real change in the world.
I don't want to see us lose that opportunity. And we might. Not simply because some are refusing these tools, but rather because so many aren't, and are becoming critical zombies incapable of thinking without access to these tools.
If you don't learn how to use these tools, learn why they work and how they work... you very well might find yourself being used by them in due course.
I'm not being hyperbolic. As a study from Microsoft showed, interacting with AI can literally make us less capable of critical thought. The good news? The advantages inherent in this technology can be quite powerful if you remain critical and rely on building your own critical capacities (with AI only serving as one tool in your knowledge tool kit).
This actually brings me around to the personal-knowledge management side of things. Learning how to think more effectively is a cultivated practice that requires time and energy... but the payoffs can be huge. The more you work to apply yourself to learning to connect the edges of your life and learning, the more your life takes on new dimensions of possibility.
The future? Where is it? Why?
I've teased some thoughts that I have in mind -- businesses that I've been toying with, projects of larger scope that interest me. But, first...
Yes, I am still working on my science fiction novel! I know – that was what you really read this far to know.
The process isn't fast, nor easy. But it's worthwhile. I'm very grateful to my lovely wife, my friends, and my writing critique group for helping me stay the course.
But as for other projects?
Well... they involve knowledge management.
Big surprise, 'eh?
I don't know when I'll reveal more, but I'm excited by the possibilities I envision for the future. It's good to be excited about something, to have fun, to hold out hope for the future. There are some people who only see the ugly. The ugly is easy to see, and it becomes easier and easier to see nothing else the more you look. But to see the ugly and make something from it; to see a dark present reality and take steps toward something brighter and more hopeful? Well, that's what will actually take us someplace in the strange days ahead.
Anyway, look for more from me and Katie in the days ahead. Videos, writing -- no promises as to its frequency, but it's on its way.
For now?
Go easy, friends. And, if you can't go easy? Just go as easy as you can.
~Odin