{"id":7525,"date":"2025-06-21T11:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=7525"},"modified":"2025-06-21T11:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:47:10","slug":"ai-says-if-only-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=7525","title":{"rendered":"AI SAYS, [IF] [ONLY], [THEN] . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I heard a program on the radio this morning with a guest in business using AI in dozens of fields to improve life.<br>The key&#8212;with access to sufficient information in real time, we will be able to solve, predict, and prevent ills that plague us and kill us.<br>So, I write about AI.<br><br><br>Science and medicine and technology have been saying for many decades, &#8220;If we just had more information, if we discovered just the right thing, if we just had bigger and faster computers working together, if only . . ., then breakthroughs for better life and health are just around the corner.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those scientific promises compete only with political promises.<br>And we keep believing, and we keep funding, the next promise.<br>And just what is &#8220;just around the corner&#8221;?<br>Another set of promises (with some breakthroughs).<br>And we keep believing and funding . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The power of hope.<br>The power of power.<br>The power of promises for more, in exchange for less freedom of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have been royally and masterfully conditioned for some time with all the good things that technology can buy (or give us).<br>And now, that technology (those in charge of it) is calling the card, the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have wondered all along where all this advancement at lightning speed could lead, and could it turn to bite us&#8212;or worse ?<br>We are starting to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to the title, with the brackets, and without the brackets.<br><strong>AI SAYS, [IF] [ONLY], [THEN] . . .<\/strong><br>Actually, that&#8217;s what science and technology say, &#8220;If only, then . . .&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Somehow, somewhere, someone determined that now was the right time to play the AI card to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI eliminates the &#8220;IF&#8221;&#8212;and is rapidly building the &#8220;ONLY&#8221;&#8212;and is threatening, about to demonstrate what it can do &#8220;THEN&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every weapon ever invented in all history, has been used&#8212;for good&#8212;for evil.<br>The breakthroughs in advancement and use of weapons has been fascinating, and scary.<br>AI is all that, and more.<br>No one seems to know how it will get used ultimately&#8212;except the people who are in charge of controlling it (or who think they are).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe someone will take the opportunity to use AI to try to control the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<br>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s &#8216;hard&#8217; to recall a nuke that&#8217;s been fired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I heard a program on the radio this morning with a guest in business using AI in dozens of fields to improve life.The key&#8212;with access to sufficient information in real time, we will be able to solve, predict, and prevent ills that plague us and kill us.So, I write about AI. Science and medicine and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions\/7526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}