If we are here, it's because computers are useless

Hello all,

I must close some other projects before starting with the "feature" posts I announced previously. In the meantime, allow me to share some links, plus something I feel makes even clearer what I hope to do here, and why YOU may find it interesting.

Of chatGPT vs income security

Please consider these few quotes (freely rearranged to make my own point clearer) from a great post I just found about "ChatGPT vs income security", by Scott Santens:

ChatGPT... has already read virtually the entire internet, and as time goes on, it will read more and more.

And part of what it has read is my stuff. ChatGPT has the ability to save people the time of actually reading my stuff. On the one hand, this is great.

But that also means they aren't actually reading my stuff and instead getting a distilled version. And that means... fewer people ever learning about my work, which means fewer people supporting my work.

[And things will get worse] "as people begin to shift away from doing Google searches and clicking link after link to find what they're looking for, and instead just let AI answer their questions... [Since fewer links will be clicked,] fewer articles and blog posts will ever actually be read..."

Fewer clicks? Wait a minute!

"Few links will be clicked...fewer articles will ever actually be read" is exactly the reason why I started a newsletter and it's "your" fault:

If a newsletter is the only way left to be sure that at least all my self-declared "followers" do receive everything I write and can read it in the smoothest possible way, so be it.

If Santens is right, and at least in the short/medium term there are very good chances he is, it means two things. For me, it's a confirmation that I did the right thing to start a newsletter, through a platform that also makes fireside talks easier.

In general, Santens' way to describe all "Artificial Intelligences" like chatGPT is, almost literally, Picasso's prophecy come true:

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." (*)

Full speed ahead! (together!)

Summing up, if:

• what AIs like chatGPT will accomplish is to make it even harder than it already is, for people, to see each other and above all to talk with each other meaningfully

• and if they will do in the USELESS way, that is by "only giving you answers"

...let's accept the immortal advice of Admiral Farragut:

Damn the AIs, let's converse then!

To me, Picasso and Santens tell that this moment is a great moment, and an urgent call, for all those who seek meaningful questions, and sensible ways to discuss them.

This newsletter and my main blog are my little contribution to that effort, and I hope that you will subscribe and support it.

Food for thought

In no particular order, here are some of the pieces I found most interesting lately:

• Generative AI and Human Reward Systems

• Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

• Is Graphene Green?

• The ‘new way of life’ captivating Japan

• Virtual Reality Sex Worker Was Denied Entry to the U.S. for ‘Prostitution’

• The US dollar has reached its past-due date

• Thinking About Not-Knowing

(*) Incidentally, I can't find the source right now, but one of the best proposals for using chatGPT in schools is to use it to produce answers to certain questions, and then make the students discover and expose why and how those answers are wrong, or otherwise inadequate.