I do agree, absolutely! I just think AI is less artificially intelligent than it is artificially stupid. Does this respond to the prompt? I love your writing! I’m currently singing!
Love the line: "The task was never just a task. It was the very training ground."
Abstraction promises to free up time for better things. But the layers compound. First we stopped navigating by landmarks. Then we stopped reading maps. Now we follow the blue dot without knowing what city we're in. Each handover felt like a gain at the time. The loss only shows up much later.
I've been thinking about the next layer: what happens when we start delegating not just tasks but judgment? Filtering, negotiating, even choosing on our behalf. We've already handed memory and navigation to our phones without quite noticing. The next handover goes further.
I also have 1 example to add to your list. #21: choosing a restaurant versus reading reviews versus letting your agent book the reservation while you sleep.
Step 6 of How to make a $1,500 sandwich and only six months was classic. How many of us have ever ridden a cow? Or a bull for that matter. I’ve been hard-tasking this last couple of weeks renovating a house for my son. Today’s tasks included 1) patch walls with drywall 2) mud and tape the joints, 3) tear down a 16 foot dilapidated fence section and replace it with two, pre-fabricated fence panels from Lowe’s, 4) install and shim out a 30” interior door. How was it? It was OK. I feel like I am functioning at the app level…it’s not machine language, or assembly language, or even early computer languages like FORTRAN, Basic, Pascal. Many levels separate my functionality from the original level of production. Still, there is sometimes the temptation to do it the old-fashioned way. On the fence: Maybe I go out and cut down a tree and mill it into boards, as the Amish do, and then set my 4 x 4 posts, cross beams and hammer the boards into place one by one. On the door: building out my own frame, then hanging the door on my own hinges, perhaps that gets closer to the carpentric essence, instead of ordering a pre-hung unit. We definitely take for granted the automation of tasks that previously formed an important part of daily life. For example, copious internet videos demonstrate how enormous robotic machines are capable of putting together ever-more-complex buildings, like giant 3D printers squeezing concrete into programmed blueprinted structures. After seeing the dancing acrobatic robots at the Chinese New Year show from Beijing last month, I realize it’s a matter of time until AI-controlled could do all the tasks mentioned above, and more. But, Tom, will that robot cry out in pain and cuss to high heaven when it cuts it’s thumb on a plastic electrical box?
Excellent list of examples.
Thank you!
Really solid perspective. We can use AI as a tool but we cannot let it take away our purpose!
Amen!
Classic tom white W
Thank you!
I do agree, absolutely! I just think AI is less artificially intelligent than it is artificially stupid. Does this respond to the prompt? I love your writing! I’m currently singing!
I love your enthusiasm! Thank you :)
Love the line: "The task was never just a task. It was the very training ground."
Abstraction promises to free up time for better things. But the layers compound. First we stopped navigating by landmarks. Then we stopped reading maps. Now we follow the blue dot without knowing what city we're in. Each handover felt like a gain at the time. The loss only shows up much later.
I've been thinking about the next layer: what happens when we start delegating not just tasks but judgment? Filtering, negotiating, even choosing on our behalf. We've already handed memory and navigation to our phones without quite noticing. The next handover goes further.
By coincidence, I wrote about this today if you're curious: https://rajeshachanta.substack.com/p/future-tense-1-the-agent-in-the-middle
I also have 1 example to add to your list. #21: choosing a restaurant versus reading reviews versus letting your agent book the reservation while you sleep.
Yes yes yes, I’m very worried about that too. Excited to give your piece a read and compare notes!
Step 6 of How to make a $1,500 sandwich and only six months was classic. How many of us have ever ridden a cow? Or a bull for that matter. I’ve been hard-tasking this last couple of weeks renovating a house for my son. Today’s tasks included 1) patch walls with drywall 2) mud and tape the joints, 3) tear down a 16 foot dilapidated fence section and replace it with two, pre-fabricated fence panels from Lowe’s, 4) install and shim out a 30” interior door. How was it? It was OK. I feel like I am functioning at the app level…it’s not machine language, or assembly language, or even early computer languages like FORTRAN, Basic, Pascal. Many levels separate my functionality from the original level of production. Still, there is sometimes the temptation to do it the old-fashioned way. On the fence: Maybe I go out and cut down a tree and mill it into boards, as the Amish do, and then set my 4 x 4 posts, cross beams and hammer the boards into place one by one. On the door: building out my own frame, then hanging the door on my own hinges, perhaps that gets closer to the carpentric essence, instead of ordering a pre-hung unit. We definitely take for granted the automation of tasks that previously formed an important part of daily life. For example, copious internet videos demonstrate how enormous robotic machines are capable of putting together ever-more-complex buildings, like giant 3D printers squeezing concrete into programmed blueprinted structures. After seeing the dancing acrobatic robots at the Chinese New Year show from Beijing last month, I realize it’s a matter of time until AI-controlled could do all the tasks mentioned above, and more. But, Tom, will that robot cry out in pain and cuss to high heaven when it cuts it’s thumb on a plastic electrical box?