I want to preface this essay on the fact that I am not an expert in any of the above. I’m merely giving my best educated guess on things in the world right now and hope you read this and have thoughts. Thoughts are good. Ideas are good.
I also want to offer full disclosure, I sometimes use Google Gemini for trouble shooting my website and other tech, editing and brainstorming ideas. I don’t use it for actual creative things. I know some won’t like any of that, but it is what it is.
So, today all U.S. flights were grounded which hasn’t happend since September 11, 2001. Even college football teams couldn’t get to their games and no telling what is going to happen with people stranded all over the country, plus packages not making it to their destinations.
The longer it goes on, the bigger the disruption in nationwide economy and services. In other words, its a shitshow. Out of the gate, people were blaming the new SMART AI system the FAA rolled out a few days ago. Though the company behind SMART says that wasn’t the cause. Of course they would say that.
BUT we’ve had a lot of silence from the Trump administration, which isn’t a shock, and I don’t believe much of what they put out anyway. So any statement they make is likely bullshit. AI could very well be the culprit. I tell you I’m not fully Anti-AI. I’ve had a weird relationship with it and I do have to be careful because it would be easy to just rely on it for too much.
That said, it is far from the “Super intelligence” our government says it is. I think using AI to figure out why your website isn’t loading is one thing. To use it to navigate and land planes is a whole different ballgame. I think AI can have its uses as long as it has plenty of human oversight. If you just unleash an AI into your systems and let it run shit, I just expect Skynet will happen sooner rather than later.
But we don’t even know if AI is the reason. I don’t want to speculate too much on the airplane thing, because if I’m wrong then I have to eat my own shit and I don’t want to do that.
The fact is, we are in a scary time. Tech is running amuck and its being developed by billionaire comic book villains. It doesn’t help our current president is a megalomaniac with dementia.
Ok, update in real time here, as I’m writing this, the FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop and blamed it on a communications problem. We’ll see if that explanation holds. I want to talk about trains for a minute and some other things.
In the TV Show Battlestar Galactica the Cylons were able to disable all the fleet’s newer ships and fighters because they had networked computers and it was easier for them to hack them and disable them. Captain Adama’s ship and fighters didn’t have updated systems, they had older computers and non-networked. As a result, they survived and were able to keep fighting.
Things like Trains seem like outmoded means of transportation, but they can be highly efficient, safer and less reliant on so much tech. There is something to be said for analog means of travel when something like this happens.
I think over all, however we travel, there always needs to be a human element. I’m not an expert on traffic control, but my understanding is that its an art as much as it is a science. AI won’t be able to think on its feet and make snap judgement calls a human would be able to in a tight situation. Same when using it for surgery or law enforcement or anything else. A human always needs to be there analyzing the data before action is taken, or else you’re just handing people’s safety over to an unproven machine, and that can be very disruptive if not outright unsafe.
Now, I hardly go anywhere. I can’t remember the last time I flew and usually just drive all over when I do travel. Though I like trains and they are now talking about a San Antonio to Dallas Bullet train here, which I would use a lot if possible.
I’m not scared of flying, I just hate the experience of flying which is a whole different essay. In the end, I trust humans with my life, as flawed and messy as we are. AI only knows data and algorithms and doesn’t have any guts or instinct when sometimes that can make all the difference.
Leave a Reply