Courtesy of wikipedia.org
A recent health publication warned readers against accumulating clutter. Clutter taxes the mind, it said. Then it went on to explain that when we force our brains to focus on many things, ”our performance with each task can become less efficient.” (“Less Mess, Less Stress,” Healthwise, Spring 2016, pg. 4.) I agree with that assessment. Years ago, I complained about the stress of multitasking. Today, AI reduces our focus ever more.
The biggest danger to our minds is on the battlefield. Military commanders describe the new fog of war: too much information at a soldier’s fingertips. We’re drowning in data, an officer complained.
We shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve already seen how easily machines can overmaster us. In 1977, Deep Blue defeated chess champion Gary Kasparov in a competition; ChatGPT passed the bar in 2023. And Google’s DeepMind won gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Unfortunately, experts offer little guidance on how to live in a world saturated with information. Knowing more doesn’t seem to help us predict the future. For example, Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI,” predicts that in the next few years, machines will eliminate most white-collar jobs and spur massive unemployment. Another set of experts disagrees and hurries to remind us that AI, like every technological advance before it, will lead to greater prosperity.
I hope this optimism is justified. Increased prosperity for everyone would be good. But a surplus of money gives us no guidance on how to deal with a surplus of information. And, I haven’t begun to consider the danger of false data. Either way, if there’s too much of it, our brains can’t process it.
Ironically, ignorance could be a saving grace. AI can’t take us into brave new worlds until someone solves the problem of insufficient land and water. We don’t have enough of either to sustain the required data centers that keep the system running. That impediment may give us time to consider our destiny.
Another impediment is funding. Who’s going to pay for this expensive system? The U. S. Treasury is perilously in debt. Paying the interest on the current obligation costs $2 trillion a year.
Some experts don’t see a problem with funding. The Committee for Responsible Federal Government predicts “The biggest revenue drivers for the government over the next decade will be individual income taxes and payroll taxes, bringing in $4.2 trillion and $2.66 trillion come 2036, respectively.”
I hope they are right, but I don’t see how the government will collect taxes if much of the population is unemployed. Oligarchs might come to the rescue by paying more of what they earn, but they‘ve shown no willingness to do so. Besides, Elon Musk insists oligarchs don’t have enough money to pull the country out of debt. Maybe that’s why U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing a tax on companies for every worker they replace with robots. But even if that stabilizes the government, I don’t see how that helps the displaced worker.
Investor Warren Buffett had some advice about curbing the debt a while ago. He suggested we pass a law that says that anytime there’s a deficit of more than 3% of the GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for reelection.
Andrew Yang, an American businessman, offers another proposal: we should stop taxing workers. I like the idea, but would it help? I don’t know, and neither does Andrew Yang.
After the tariffs, the growth of detention centers, and the war in Iran, I’m crossing my fingers that this year I’ll have enough money to pay my taxes. As to the future? I have too much information to guess. In 2027, I’ll probably follow humorist Dave Barry’s advice. I’ll gather up my receipts, square up the tax forms on my desk, and sharpen my pencils. Then I’ll choose the most pointed one to stab myself in the aorta.
BOYCOTT: Tesla, Apple, Amazon
