Dread Talk

Two educators, both with many years under their belt helping youth function better and gain a wider understanding of the world, were having a heated argument in the teacher’s lounge of an elementary school.

“What have you got against using AI to teach the kids? It’s coming whether we like it or not, and they’ll be better prepared for the changing workforce if we come to terms with it now,” Carol said.

“The other day,” Allen retorted, “The search engine AI gave me a wrong answer.

It told me that the battery for my car’s key fob was a 2032, which I ordered, only to find out it was a 1620. Luckily I can still use the 2032s for my guitar tuner, but this goes to show that an intelligence which regurgitates random information without verifying it through experience remains fallible, whether human or artificial.”

“You’re overreacting! It’s bound to make mistakes while it learns, just like us. Give it time, and it’ll improve! Life will improve at a rate never seen before!”

“If it were not my key fob but information relevant to a major decision made by a world leader, the results could be beyond disastrous. Or what if we let AI run weapons systems, and some small bit of misinformation snowballs into complete atrocity?” Allen was clearly miffed, but tried to contain his ire, because he didn’t want to upset Carol, who was a longtime friend, and sometimes prone to reacting emotionally when her imperturbable optimism—one of the many things he loved about her—was challenged.

“That’s the plot of The Terminator, isn’t it? Don’t get your pantaloons in a bunch, Allen! It’s no big deal. We’ll grow side by side!”

He had to laugh at the pantaloons crack. They often joked around and played the fool for their students, and shared stories here in the lounge about the hilarious and mostly positive results. Nevertheless, he was concerned about this attitude, not just on Carol’s part, but also on the part of his fellow educators. He thought it was flippant.

“I know doomsday scenarios can get in our heads and cloud our judgment, but so do utopian dreams! All the nuclear disasters of the last century occurred in the wake of just such dismissals!

This problem of false learning isn’t a new one either. It can only be exponentially propounded should we choose to continue utilizing AI in lieu of hands-on instruction and experience to teach our youth.

I do not see a future humanity with knowledge. I see a future humanity wearing a leash and licking its crotch, with its nose literally in its asshole, thinking the smell of its own shit better than the aroma of the surrounding world!”

He saw Carol visibly recoil and instantly regretted his sour remarks, but not because he thought them exaggerated in the least. He was genuinely concerned.

“Look, Carol, I’m sorry. Thank you for coming to my dread talk, I guess.”

That made Carol laugh, but she was still a little hurt. She knew he had a point but just couldn’t bring herself to despair in the face of the inevitable. “I get it, Allen. These are real concerns.”

The bell rang and they parted ways with the usual amicability, each going to their respective class.

At one point during her study hall period, she looked up from her digital device to see her students gaping and gawking at theirs, not one of them whispering to another, or passing notes, or staring out the window.

All isolated in their own little worlds, pursuing freely what information, or idle pleasure, they chose.

She couldn’t help but think of Allen’s ribald analogy and cursed him a little for putting it in her mind in the first place, but by the time she drove home, she’d put it out of her mind just as easily.

She could always rely on the buoyancy of her own spirit, thinking to herself: what will be, will be.

Allen, however, was ruminating deeper on the subject. He knew Carol was right when she said it was inevitable. Commerce would assure that, damning thing that it was.

He didn’t think the outcome he feared was just as inevitable, but possible and even likely, if human beings did not seek to preserve real human interaction between educators and children; and therein lies the danger that the demon Commerce poses, with all its emphasis on efficiency at the expense of creativity.

Creativity takes time and space. One needs room to make mistakes, because mistakes are what we really learn from. It’s not about consistent net results, like systemic efficiency, but about the refinement of the character of the individual.

He taught a full curriculum at the elementary school, but his primary points of interest as an academic had always been literature and philosophy.

He thought about what the protagonist encounters in the far-flung future in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.

The Eloi, the first descendants of humanity we encounter, are stunted, soft creatures that are nevertheless beautiful in their placid and peaceful way.

The other descendants, the Morlocks, are apish descendants that skulk underground in a mechanical labyrinth left over from the old world, only surfacing to feed off the Eloi.

Wells’ vision was an excellent symbol of the duality innate to human nature.

Allen, who had kids, and loved his students as if they were his own, knew all too well how impressionable and innocent we start out, but also how truly innate are the passions.

Allen wanted to foil the Morlock element and keep it from herding the Eloi element, which to him represented the true beauty and grace of whatever might pass for a soul in the hapless homo sapien.

But the Eloi element would need to retain just enough of the hard exterior and whetted hunger of the Morlock to prevent such an outcome, and he didn’t see that happening in a world where we depended on an artificial intelligence to do all our thinking for us.

When he pulled into his driveway, he saw Alice, his daughter, pull the curtain back from the window and yell something back to her mom.

Daddy’s home!

The feeling he experienced in that moment gave him all the hope he could ever need.

He may never be as optimistic as Carol, but if it were left to people like him to shut their gobs and do the dirty work so others could retain their innocence and brighten his world everyday the way Alice just did, he supposed that would have to do.