Complexity

I hear people talking about how complicated the world is now. Sometimes it's old people being geezers wishing for the good old days. Sometimes its anyone trying to get into their phone to actually do something that seems important at the moment, and it's a struggle. Something was updated and the process is different now. Or it's in the middle of an update and won't pay attention to you till it's done. Or it wants a password. Or it's nearly out of power, and its prioritizing saving the battery life as opposed to doing what you want.

One of the complexities revolves around Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short. One of my readers actually knows quite a bit about this, so I hope he doesn't laugh at me. It used to be that we thought computers would learn how to think for themselves and become self aware. In most SF stories that ends badly for the humans. After all, in a second a computer can process more information than a lifetime of human thought, and play out all sorts of different scenarios. It doesn't take much imagination for such a being to see humans as a threat. I'm somewhat reassured that we don't seem to be any closer to this than we were when I was a child. Just like I'm reassured we don't have flying cars.

One place AI started was games, particularly chess. The first chess programs weren't very good, but like most things with computers they improved rapidly. By the late 1990's they were giving grandmasters a tough time. My understanding now is that no human can beat a chess engine. Now that I look, the same turns out to be true for Go.

We don't think of those game engines as being alive, or actually thinking. They are following program principles to do one thing exceedingly well.

You're probably expecting me to talk about ChatGPT and similar chatbots. I only use them when I have to, typically when navigating some web page to get an answer. They all tout their chat abilities, but I've never had one generate an actual solution. Once I get through to a human and explain the problem, the answer is usually a variation on, yes I can help you lets go through the process. I'm actually in the process of choosing a different search engine because I'm tired of google putting up a popular answer, rather than the correct answer, and having to choose a web option, every single time.

As a digression (all the best blogs have a digression or two, and I suppose this is a digression within a digression) the Grammarly ads annoy the heck out of me. If those people were competent at writing they wouldn't be underwater. Part of the reason people can't write clearly is that they can't think clearly. Too much distraction, which I guess is a form of complexity.

Then there's AI used in generating text or images. I abhor this. I totally believe it's a plagiarism machine, stealing the work of writers and artists to train it to turn out inferior copies or derivations of original human work. It's a problem in education, with teachers wondering if an AI bot wrote an assignment, or the student. Some of them use an AI engine to detect such forgeries. Maybe the solution is confiscate all electronic devices from students on the way into an exam room, where they are issued pen and paper, and asked to write an essay on a topic related to the course. (I digress again, imagining the proctor saying "The elephant, a federal or provincial responsibility, 1000 words, you have 1 hour, spelling and neatness counts.")

Where I want to see AI working is to make things actually better for humans. Getting better at managing traffic flow, whether it be cars on the road, or products in a supply chain. I suppose the supposed self driving cars were going to be part of this, but I haven't heard much about this lately. There's been a few crashes make the news because the driver didn't understand the limitations of the driver assist. I've rented cars that I didn't know had the driver assist, and I had a couple terrified moments when the car did things I didn't expect. Once we got where we were going I had to look up how to turn all those features off. It isn't a big stretch to get a car that won't let the driver turn those features off. I still remember one rental car from a few years ago, where three grown people with lots of driving experience looked at the 5 buttons on the rearview mirror, and failed to understand what they did.

There are many days I thinking I'm reaching new heights (or depths, you decide) of being a geezer or curmudgeon. I like to do things for myself, even when I know there are easier ways. A camera, for example. At it's heart a camera is a very simple thing. There is a lightproof box with an opening that can control the amount of light coming in, and a sensor to capture the light. 

I am looking at two different versions of that. One of them is a film camera that does not use batteries. I load my choice of film, choose what filters if any go on front of the lens. I choose the aperture and shutter speed, and decide what to aim the camera at and when to click the shutter button. 

The other is a DSLR camera that is only a few years old but is considered obsolete. What it really is, is a specialized computer for controlling that lightproof box and the lens attached to it. Like many computers, there are far too many menu options for even a dedicated enthusiast to choose between. Most of us figure out a basic set of choices and carry on by ignoring the others. You can buy a thingie to fasten to the top of the camera, and it's like a super duper auto function, essentially relegating the human to being a camera carrying biological tool for the camera.

Yesterday and today I was out with the big film camera (the one on the right in the photo below). Something so simple, and yet I goofed on a couple photos. Well, they won't be photos, I know that. I really should put a little checklist on the back of the camera. But this is the joy of it. When everything works and I get a lovely image, I know that I did it, not a computer. When it doesn't work, that's on me, and usually I know what happened. 

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film

One of the attempts to capture the actual colour of the red peony. I think film does better than digital.

Linda

Newfoundland

Polar bears

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

90 days, or so ago

Actually this sequence is from a little over a month ago, since I'd blogged more photos than I was taking.

Celina

Checking out the outside world.