Transitions

By Gordon Hopkins There are people who ask me why I am so obsessed with AI (Artificial Intelligence). That is a fair question. I could give any number of reasons, some of which I will share here. However, the easiest answer is this: Why should I be different than anyone else in the world?The whole world is, indeed, currently obsessed with AI. When something is clearly changing the world, it would be weird not to think about it a lot.It is rare that we as a species (human, mostly) are able to see the transition from one kind of world to another until after the fact. Occasionally, albeit very rarely, you can narrow that transitional moment down to the minute, such as 8:15 a.m. (Japan time) on August 6, 1945, when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The potentials and pitfalls of atomic instantly became a worldwide obsession, creeping into every facit of life, not just science and politics and warfare. It was why the monsters on Saturday matinee monster movies of the 50s were created by radiation instead of supernatural curse or a mad doctor in a castle.Other world-altering transitions were much fuzzier. A good example is the Watergate scandal. Folks didn’t think it was such a big deal when a “third-rate burglary” (as someone once called it) was reported in The Washington Post on Sunday, June 18, 1972, not by Woodward or Bernstein but by Post staff writer Alfred E. Lewis. By August 9, 1974, when president Richard Nixon resigned his office, everyone understood the world after Watergate would be different than the world before it.In these and other cases, the transition is only recognized after the fact. Oh, there are always a few future-sighted people who see it coming but no one ever listens to them. They are like the sheriff in “Jaws.” No one pays attention until someone gets eaten. It is rare, all but unheard of, that we can see the change coming. Well, it’s happening now. No one knows what the world will look like but pretty much everyone agrees it will be very, very different from the world we were living in yesterday and the world we are living in today.

Nebraska’s Broadband Plan: Squandering $405 Million in Record Time

CO2 Pipeline to Begin Operations in Nebraska Soon

Related Articles

Are Marshmallow Peeps the New Pumpkin Spice?

Again

Time Marches On (But I Don’t)

The Year of the Fire Horse