Kill the machine. Keep the people. @roamer_1
Great post,
@Smokin Joe , all of it.
I am a heck of a geek, but it ain't ever been where my heart lies, beyond the fixing of things - I have to understand how to deal with these things that are becoming so influential in society, and have such a huge impact on my friends, family, and myself.
But I am far removed from computerized society, beyond a token FB presence for harvesting grandkid pix, and a few scattered forums, this one being primary... The very fact that it is virtual means that it ain't real - But folks have gone so far into the virtual that they no longer understand the real at all. And in the process, lose track of any sense or propriety.
I drug home a 50's era 6" vise the other day... A feller can learn a whole lot about folks messin around with restoring things. That old vise was made back in a day when people meant it. I am sure you know that you can't even buy a good one anymore... But that ol girl has been around longer than me, and other than being cached full of rust, some worn out chompers, and wallered out acme thread, she's as good as the day she was made.
That ol vise is a thing of beauty - Made by true craftsmen for the use of true craftsmen... And stood the test of time. That I dug it out of a trash heap at the steel yard says more about the kind of folks we've become than about the vise itself.
She's all apart right now, as I have been soaking the years off her, and she'll have to bear the indignity of the sandblaster, And I will have to drill out the threads and make a steel collar to replace them, pressing that into the faulty spindle nut to make her new... And a set of jaw plates I have to make on a flycutter... She'll be all brand-new pretty soon, all refitted and greased, and painted orange and lettered... Ready for the next 70 years, where hopefully some other craftsman will see it's worth, see my own craftsmanship, and repeat it...
I will bring her back from her grave and make her right as rain, right back to original specs, in part because I have a deep respect for her maker... But also because you just cannot buy her like for any price anymore. And what it can do - Well, there ain't no app for that. And that is what folks are missing.
As to the question, life is cheap and confusing to those who have nothing to weigh it against...
Would I have any confusion at all between a hoomin life and that vise? Of course not. It is a machine. Just because the AI is more complicated, doesn't make the decision any different... And one I can readily make without hardly a thought.
As to the hoomin, well, there again, I have a deep respect for their Maker... And I have done enough killing to know what life is. That may well be where the rubber meets the road - I know the price of every bite of meat I put in my mouth, and that price is life. Life taken from the critter I am gnawing on is directly life for me. That it was taken by my own hand makes it very real.
And from that blooms a deeper respect for life, which directly extends to understanding - And is why I will forever prefer my conversations to be with sweet tea and maybe a chunk of pie, if I am lucky, on a back porch somewhere... That same decision, compared with texting, skyping, or even the phone, is likewise readily made without a thought. Those other means are nothing but cheap replacements made in China.
That direct interaction with all the facial expressions, smells, textures, and such, cannot be replaced, cannot be refined... It is as natural as it comes... and nature is reality un-retouched... A thing that cannot be virtualized.