Embracing AI

When I was in High School, we all had to go to the auditorium for a presentation about computers and the world of computers. I was afraid of anything having to do with computers. Computer Science, Fortran, all kinds of languages. I was interested in learning the language of people. I took Spanish and French. We sit before these two gentlemen, in cacky pants, white shirts, ties, and mop hair; short and super poofy on the top. Youngish, with a little bit of belly flopping over their belts. They didn’t look like they got out much. Geeks. I could relate.

One gentleman starts, he begins talking about the evolution of computers, a little bit of history; and starts getting excited about where we are “today.” What we are “moving to.” The other guy starts talking. “We are in the age…” He was pumped! Pu-Umped! “We are at the age now where we can…” “We will soon be able to…” If memory serves me, I think he was talking about the coming of the internet. He was on fire. The other guy chimed in. People started asking questions. It was interesting. I was concerned about people, and social interactions. As the conversation continued, my concerns for how technology could interrupt the social fabric of things, grew. Even though I was shy and the auditorium was huge, I slowly raised my hand to ask a question. I asked “How do you think computers will affect socialization?” No answer. They looked at each other. No answer. Then, one of them said, I think it was “fire guy,” well with all things there will be trial and error.

I went to typing class, my first class, where we used IBM’s brownish grey, electric typewriters. I enjoyed learning to type on that thing. I loved that little ball. I thought it was the most beautiful creation, ever. aaa bbb ccc ddd or aaa sss ddd fff ggg hhh jjj kkk lll mmm nnn ooo ppp qqq rrr or something like that (pretty sure it was next row, the finger stretch). I loved the way the keys made the sounds they made. I also loved the older models. The one’s with the long extended fingers, one could say they were akin to long legs. The way the ribbons were so smooth, like the hairs of a fine violin bow. The zing of the return, when you were really moving on something you were writing. Even the not so lovable white, what was that called? “White type?” “White Eraser?” “White Ink Remover?” Oh, “White Out.” That’s what it was called. It had a little white ink drop on a black label background. Little itty bitty thing. Priceless! Then came “White Ribbon.” Then, “White Tape.” Then, machines that could load black ribbon and white ribbon altogether. A motion like backspace allowed you to go back over a word to remove it. Then go back again, and retype it. Maybe it was something like, “Correcto-type.” I think that’s what we called it. It was cumbersome. Don’t try to get to fancy and use beige paper, or resume paper, it came out messy so, lot’s of re-do’s. Those balls though, they were magic. You could type and remove with a key stroke.

So computers. Hmmm. Then I got to college and used a standard typewriter for my papers. I loved my little bugger. Then, my boyfriend at the time started working for IBM. He got me one of those electric one’s. I was a junior by then, still it was awesome. I could justify. Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow.

By the time I reached graduate school in the late 80’s, I had purchased my first computer. It was a Compaq. It was MSDOS, 1’s and 0’s, and <: and Codes. Anything you wanted to do, you had to tell the computer to do it, in it’s language. So, I learned. It was, kinda magical. All’s you had to do really, was understand, you, have to tell it, what you, want it, to do, in it’s language. Whatever you didn’t know, you looked it up. Do not miss any symbols. This understanding would prepare me for later. I didn’t know it at the time.

Fast forward to disks and cd’s loaded with information. The whole encyclopedia could be viewed from a disk. My computer came with it. Something called Encarta I believe. Plus. There were templates for Newsletters, I created one for my family I thought I’d continue. Still a dream. It was endless really endless. Then came AOL. The internet. Another language in how to be digitally. What I loved the most was access to information I had normally found in books or in the library. Like, the world became, smaller. It was, kinda cool. In fact, very cool.

Then on to the computers that are closest to the ones we have now. Different types, styles, looks, something for everyone. Just had to pay attention to the size of your memory. That was when things really started to shift for me. So yes, the amount of information was endless, though you had to have the right amount of memory to hold the things you wanted, especially after everything started coming out, not on CD’s or disk, though internally on your system, or you could install it onto your system, without the use of the physical storage device. Yes, I skipped over the floppy disk error. How Gigantic and super thin they were, to how much smaller and flatter they became, and then the use of USB drives, or now we call them sticks. That was something and called for the understanding of the external hard drives. Then chips, and SanDisk, type apparatus to convert your varying sizes of memory to easily be read on your computer. Yeah, it had legs. The computer that is. So, I became aware of memory, need, heft, capacity in short. Then it just got over the top!

Fast forward again, and cell phones came out. Mini computers. Pocket computers. Pock sized dynamo’s with heft like a desktop. I had one desk top, then converted to laptops from then on out to current. I love the mobility.

Fast forward again, and well low and behold you could build your own website. Well guess who started doing that? I Loved it! It was like Newsletter Plus, plus, plus, plus and still going! I Love it so much I started building other people’s sites and getting paid to do it! Yeah, look who’s Loving it now? So, my Love and my Love for people and information has been expressed in the forms of many websites, I built for my peeps. Peeps like me,,,,,who have many interests, and want to share the Love with the world!

Next up, I’m seriously trying to get my head around AI. As Richard Branson says, (I’m paraphrasing) AI needs us. He is dyslexic and so am I, and so are a whole lot of other people who see the world differently (along with those of us that, “Got Thangs” “I got Thangs” to contend with, like -OCD – really it’s not fun, it used to take me 2 to 3 hours to leave the house before work in the morning argh; anxiety, low grade depression, stuff-ess) or, as the new DSM IV says, we need to view mental health issues on a continuum of dimensionality- there’s more of that in my social service training, kind of a plug, more about truth). So Richard Branson, check his dyslexia stuff and other stuff out, is convinced and I agree, that we need to help educate AI about things seen differently. I’ve come to adapt to the idea that, it is here, It Is Really Here, and It Is Not Going Anywhere, and to survive, we must adapt. So, I’m adapting.