Editorial – March 2024: Deep Foreboding And Other Colours.
Deep Foreboding And Other Colours
or
Staying Ahead Of AI.
Hello everyone,
Science fiction is, apart from the usual advanced stuff, a study of how humans react to unusual situations. Often, it’s the same way as we have in our current reality. Surprise or shock, comprehension, and finding a solution. Any of which can be prolonged. The situation might change, but the mechanics of thinking remind us how we should go about things are pretty much a given and make a connection to the reader or viewer. In reality, SF writers just apply the mental mechanics the way we normally do; it’s just the situation that has changed. More so, as none of us have claimed to have visited the various futures to see if we would have changed that much. They have had no need to change. It still enables people to relate to the situation, as that would be the way they react, or, rather, the way we hope we would react if we were ever in such a situation.
More likely, we might just act like any of the supporting characters, which doesn’t end well for them. Paralysing with fear, fleeing, getting behind someone else, or the inevitable death. Again, these are also human traits under extreme conditions, and we are shown such possibilities. On reflection afterwards, you might think you would act better if prepared, but the basic reaction is all dependent on your flight or fight reflex, and flight is often seen as the better survival trait if it increases your chances of survival. If anything, the one who stays to fight, unless it is to protect others, would be regarded as the insane option if you can’t see yourself surviving. Both reactions are fueled by adrenalin. There is rarely a third option.
However, people are becoming more tolerant and even blasé in some situations, which might change how future writers get reactions, let alone the emotional content. Even so, in a real-life situation, the result would be the same if your opponent still attacked. The most non-violent person is going to react instinctively and hit back just to defend himself or herself in a violent situation if given the chance, and shock hasn’t sunk in. If we could all be that lucky,.
If we apply such thinking to our current world situation, Things aren’t quite that way. We have various serious world situations that could possibly put us on the brink of all-out wars, and a home country event puts them on the sidelines as if they don’t exist, which is a bit disconcerting. People are more aware of how national thinking works and can second-guess certain reactions with evidence backing them up, enabling short- and long-term reactions. An example of that is that a certain Russian leader knows a certain American country has no staying power when it comes to prolonged war and will wait them out over another country. That’s not quite how things are supposed to work out. That should confound Google on that sentence, and you still get the meaning. Of course, if this is a mental war, then such things need to be counter-thought to give a different reaction, so show that it isn’t so. Think of it as a game of mental chess or even poker. You know what your opponent thinks of your cards, but you need to show you’re not bluffing with a better strategy or hand.
Obviously, the one to out-think anyone or thing is just not to fall into any predictable pattern, so you can’t be anticipated unless you examine all the options for a situation and pick out the right one. Think of it with Word, and when it offers your next word, see if you can find a better one and see if it learns from your behaviour. If nothing else, you at least prove you have a better vocabulary than your word processor.
It doesn’t mean it can work all the time, especially if you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or even anti-violent, because these are set patterns that decide your decisions. We can, however, do something an AI can’t do deliberately, and that is to lie. Even though I don’t do social media, I suspect some Internet AI somewhere has my profile. Whether it makes sense or depends on the type of email advertisements I get, I rarely get anything right. One thing I’m glad I was always cautious about is disclosing information that my bank uses for proof of identity. Of course, you could have lied about that, but you’re going to have problems with your CV if they see contradictions online. It’s better to omit rather than lie about some facts.
Any AI can only work with the information it can glean, and sitting in front of a computer screen means you shouldn’t be in a fight-or-flight situation. You’re expecting an ‘except’ and there is one here, too. Some AIs have been taught to con you, convincing you that your password or bank balance is in trouble and you need to change them. Then again, how many of you change your passwords on a regular basis so it immediately draws on your guilty feeling that you should have changed them and a need for immediate action? Notice that word ‘immediate’ coming up. It’s a trigger word and a slight spike of adrenalin to do something. In other words, you’ve been worked on by an AI programmed to work your emotional state against you.
If you pay attention to warnings that the official companies will never ask for your passwords, then you’re reasonably safe. However, such AIs are now being given better window dressing, and because you see the right logos, you tend to act on those instead of looking at where the emails came from, and, usually, their addresses are the giveaway. AIs or their algorithms are number- or letter-crunchers. It might take time to find a password, but it still takes a lot of time for small gains.
If you still want to get annoyed, these AIs aren’t advanced, just algorithms obeying the dictates of a few decisions that you are making. No matter how much you think you can do complicated thinking, deep down most people will do simple decision-making, making it easy to guide you down a simple path. It doesn’t need a fight or flight response; just a simple change of something simple, like a password, will get under your radar.
The only way to outsmart such processes is to think before you do something that looks easy and ask yourself why it sounds so easy and why you are obliging yourself to do something that you never thought to do until an email popped up suggesting it. It’s the main question I ask anyone ringing me up claiming to be from Microsoft: Why, out of the several billion customers, would they pick me out for some sort of newsflash?
If you can do that with the little things, then you can apply it to complicated things and hope there’s no obvious pattern that makes sense to an AI algorithm watching the decisions that your thought processes are making.
Only the Illuminati knows if the proper industries use AIs in business, but they should have human supervisors that can be asked for rather than relying totally on them. Relying on unsupervised AIs is just asking for trouble.
Thank you, take care, and good night. I am neither a robot nor an AI.
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
A Zen thought: We tend not to be empty-headed…mostly.
What Qualities Does A Geek Have: We’re seen as free-thinkers because we have original thoughts.
The Reveal: Humans like to think they are complex. They aren’t really. We just under-estimate simplicity.
Second Reveal: Relative time is a manmade artefact or would reality ever create a leap year?
Observation: If we went into a bookshop and saw an absence of new SF books over a year we might be concerned. The fact that so many books are bought on-line means we don’t see the whole picture, let alone when books are released to see the entire picture. Get more concerned and check publishers’ back catalogues and show them you’re still out there.
Observation: Watching ‘The Terminator’ film again, there was one survivor of the police station massacre, the police detective Reese knocked unconscious. Granted he probably didn’t see anything but he would survived. Of course, the fire could have got him.
Observation: We all know when the first T-800 arrived in 1984 in a certain ‘Terminator’ film but why didn’t future models have the same longer hair? Presumably, that model didn’t have time to go into the Cyberdyne hairdressers before being sent back in time.
Observation: Its very weird that there was a The Bionic Woman Styling Boutique hairdressing toy for Jaime Sommers when it was really Steve Austin that had the most hairstyle changes.
Feeling Stressed: Read the editorial again. Be smart and out-think things for your own self-esteem. Stress can be reduced by thinking.
