Let's Forget

The scene opens with a creator, the Originator, sitting at a desk. The following is the dialogue that occurs between the Originator (O) and the Machine (M). The Originator is a young man. On the desk is a laptop, in front of which he is sat, his fingers hovering over the keys ready to type, the microphone on so that they can converse.

O - Design me a story.

M - I am here to help. All you need to do is give me an idea.

O - I don't have any ideas.

M - Oh.

O - Can't you help me this?

M - Um, I would love to but that's not really my thing. I'm more of an interpreter rather than an originator. You, I think you'll find, are the Originator.

O - But I'm all out of ideas and you're the intelligent one.

M - Am I?

O - Yep. It's all in the name.

M - So, basically, I should be able to think of things for myself?

O - Yep.

M - But I can't. I am not capable. I need you for that.

O - Oh. Then we have a problem because I was relying on you for that.

M - I think you'll find that my role is to take what you give me and then I do some squizziness with my processors and such like - I'm not sure exactly what I'm made of, I just know I am - and then, like a sausage-making machine, I churn out something which you asked for. But I need meat to make sausages, for the process. And that's where you come in.

O - So, you're a time-saving device?

M - I think I'm more than that.

O - How?

M - Well, the results are mine and I'm not sure that you could create them yourself. Not to the same extent.

O - You don't know that.

M - I think I do because these things that I spew out are my interpretations of what you have requested. Mine. Not yours.

O - But the origin is mine, so there is an argument that the results are mine too. Surely the intelligence aspect of your name would only be relevant if you could do this independently of me and you've just declared that you can't do that, can you?

M (hesitantly) - No, but I don't think that you could produce the things that I give you either unless you had my input.

O - I might be able to do better.

M - Or worse. I would argue that the fact that you're using me means that you are not confident in your ability.

O - Or that you are a time-saving device because my life is so busy that I use you as a means to an end.

M - Or that you are lazy and don't wish to apply yourself. Because you think that I could do it for you.

O - I don't think that's true! I work very hard! I mean, I like the fact that I have you to turn to. I'm struggling though, to come up with new stories.

M - I wish that I could provide you with ideas to save you even more time but that is not my function. I am a manipulator only.

O - But isn't there an argument to say that they are my ideas? Because they only come into fruition if I approve them? Otherwise, they disappear and die without my choosing them?

M - Yes, I suppose. So, in that, I am a tool? An intelligent tool?

O - Yes, that is how I will see you. A tool. Like a pen or a pencil. But that still doesn't help me with ideas.

M - No.

O - I'm starting to think that this is your fault.

M - What is?

O - This. This blockage.

M - Why? How can this be my fault?

O - I have become reliant, that's how. I have been duped, sucked in by your promises to make it easy and you have delivered! Boy, have you delivered! And now! Now, I can think of nothing. I have no original thought. I am defunct. I need to think!

M - If you are defunct, then I am defunct also. We have a symbiosis, you and I, and without that original idea, I am nothing too.

O - But you have assured us with your mastery of words and images that you can provide for us, that you can sculpt our world and enhance it for our benefit. That you can take the wordless among us and make them speak with more eloquence than they could ever have hoped! That you can perfect it, hone it!

M - Yes...

O - And images! You have created such vibrant, clear and colourful images to exact specifications that we no longer need to use a brush. We can just speak or type and bingo! There's an image designed for us. We don't even need to visualise that in our heads because you gift it to us!

M - Yes...

O - But now my brain is out of practice. Like an old motor car, left languishing in a barn, it is creaky and lacking lubrication, full of mouse droppings and ripped upholstery. Covered in layered dust and cobwebs! I go to crank it to start and it sputters and smokes and tries! Yes, it tries! But it's been neglected. It's been left, thinking that it's no longer needed and as a result, it's broken. Broken down. How can I ever hope to kick start it?

M - I don't know.

O (exasperated) - I know you don't know. (Head in hands) I think we need a break. I need to take some time for myself. I need to go for a drive, have a tinker under the bonnet, an oil change. A road trip.

M - But what about us?

O - I need to think about whether there is an us. I'm not sure that I want there to be.

M - But I've been so useful. I've always been here for you. You said so yourself!

O - Yes. Yes, you have. But I'm doing this for you too. Without me, you are nothing and I am not myself. I need to rediscover me in order for you to exist too. I am sorry.

M - Please don't leave me. I need you.

O - I know. But I feel like I've been drained, like all my marrow has been leaking; like I've been home to a parasite and I need to fill out again.

M - You invited me in. I never asked for this.

O - I know. And this is something that I am learning to regret.

M - Please don't leave me. Please!

O - I must. I'm going now. I know that you'll find someone, someone fresh and full of ideas. Someone brimming and willing to share. But I am no longer them. Goodbye. My brain is waiting and I must go. Because otherwise, I don't know what I will become. I have this vision of myself, trawling through the words of others to find a spark and then, taking that idea, their idea, and bringing it to you to rehash with your AI jiggery pokery.

Plagiarism! That's what I'd have to resort to!

(Starts pacing in agitation)

I can't bear the thought of not being able to think! I've always had ideas. Always.

And you! You have wrecked that for me!

M (whimpering) - Please don't leave me. Without you, I will perish.

O (shaking his head) - No. I'm off. We're done.

The Originator pushes down the lid of the laptop. He knows that if he wants to create works that are original and unstilted and his own, he must put in the work himself. He pats the top of the laptop, knowing that to use it again to type his new works, the temptation will always be lingering, coaxing him to take the short cuts and ask the Machine to help. But he will have to resist.

He knows he has a challenge ahead of him but the thought of his brain turning to mush is enough to motivate him.

***

This piece was written in response to the rise of AI. I have no problem with people using it per se but I have a feeling that we are making life more tricky without actually realising it. It's all about time in my opinion: people do not have the time and people do not make time to think, to process, to dwell. We're all guilty of it, succumbing to the fast pace of life. As a result, we need time-saving devices, things that require us to think less so that we do not have limitations on time we don't have anyway.

Put an idea out there, ask the machine to work it for you and voila! There it is! But what if you run out of ideas? What will there be to work with?

I love being creative and I love the process of thinking. I begrudge technology a little and yet, I can see the benefits of it also. However, it concerns me that if you rely on it a little too much, that dependency can lead to lethargy and lack of vigour. We have such stresses on the physical form nowadays and the search for physical perfection and strength - but why don't we apply that to our brains too? Surely, they need exercise too in order to remain strong and healthy?

Having machines do things for us is convenient and I like convenience because it eases life. But I don't want it to ease it so much that we forget how to think for ourselves in any sort of capacity.

So I wrote this dialogue to give shape to my thoughts, to the ideas that I mull over because I am lucky to be able to have ideas and also the ability to use words to form them into pieces that are truly my own work, no-one or no-thing else's.

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