Parabola

Is it any better, if the student, to avoid this offense and liberalize himself, aims to make a mechanical whole of history, or science, or philosophy, bring a numerical addition of all the facts that fall within his vision? The world refuses to be analyzed by addition and subtraction. When we are young, we spend much time and pains filling our notebooks with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year, our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola and whose arcs will never meet.

From Intellect, Essays, First Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Over these past few weeks I have been listening - or rather paying more attention - to those who are discussing what it means to be human. AI data collection without our knowledge or consent - either as consumers or artists - should be at the forefront of our minds because it will, and has impacted decisions and choices made on our behalf.

It is so easy to become complacent with the idea that a quiet hand, a soothing voice, so helpful, so knowledgeable, filtering out that information not paid for with advertising and brand money. They have their usefulness and purpose, but its functions and data collection should be transparent.

Recently, I attended an AI conference where unintentionally Alexa was summoned. Audience members laughed because the device was on while one speaker was being asked a question after her presentation. The searched for words were "A doll's house." While Alexa found a physical doll house for purchase, I was thinking of Ibsen's play. When you are communicating with a sales associate/device, its purpose is not to broaden the requester's knowledge nor include something that the consumer can obtain online royalty free.

It is time consuming to question each new innovation that promises to fulfill your life in unimaginable ways - yet not doing so may ultimately stunt imagination.

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