AI Worship

By Matthew Clark

I recently had a series of communications involving the topics of politics, and history, with someone I had known all my life.This individual has some quite impressive credentials. He built up his own business, an insurance company specializing in benefits for truckers. Early on in the start up he often had to decide which days of the week he was going to eat, and which days he would fast. From such humble beginnings he developed a strong viable business.

On one occasion he expressed to me the satisfaction he received from assisting his clients out of difficult situations. His tone was genuine. This indicated to me that he treated his work as a vocation, not as some cash cow.

While labouting at his enterprise he convinced his parents to move from their eastern Ontario rural home to his small urban community. He would take care of them. His goal was to rectify his relationship with his father. He succeeded.Another impressive feat achieved. So this individual did have some notable achievements.

I am a history graduate, the subject has been a passion of mine since I learned to read. So has politics. My paternal grandfather was a local politician. My father followed politics avidly. As a young boy I can remember them cheerfully arguing over political topics. This interest rubbed off on me to such an extent that I have worked as a volunteer on more federal, provincial, and local elections than I care to remember. Every morning, before getting ready for work, I get up and check the top political stories. I check again upon arriving home from work. Often I will study different historical or political topics for days at a time. Nevertheless this does not make me an expert in history or poitics. No such animal exists. Humans cannot completely know history as it is about events that occurred before they were alive, or where they were not in attendance. Even witnesses to historical occurances cannot have witnessed every aspect of the event. That is beyond human ability. Similarly politics is such a varied pasttime that it is beyond human expertise. Even backroom boys, and backroom girls, are astonished those few times their machinations achieve complete success.

Still even though there are no "political experts" there are individuals with much more intelligent historical/political opinions than others. Every one has a right to an opinion but not all opinions are equally well informed.

My opinions on politics and history is generally better informed than my impressive friend. Not because I am smarter than him but due to the hard work I did/do in those areas. Just as he is smarter than me in running a business, and conducting the implimentation of insurance benefits for truckers. He did the hard work in those fields.

As noted earlier we started recently to converse on political and historical issues. The first exchange was on facebook over Canada's egregious supply management system for dairy farmers. He has family who are involved in dairy farming. Decent industrious hard working folk. I had assisted on policy making regarding the dairy industry for a provincial (Ontario) candidate (who, full disclosure, did not win the election)

My analysis on the Canadian supply management system for dairy farming is that it is counter productive to both producer, and consumer. It assures the dairy farmer an income yet limits how much money they can make. Dairy farmers are hard working people, a characteristic the system discourages by imposing a limit on how much they can produce. Furthermore to buy the necessary quota (on milk, eggs, etc.) and keep that quota the costs are prohibitive. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for the quota, three million dollars for the milking robot (hopefully the price has declined since I studied the system), regulated veterinary fees, all amounted to an investment which profoundly discouraged young people from getting into the pasttime. The average age of a dairy farmer in my area of residence was between 59 and 61!

Exchanging political barbs on Facebook is not condusive to a constructive exchange of ideas. I interpeted my friends written statements to be superior and sarcastic. My replies were therefore likewise. Soon we switched to texting, while engaging on other political topics. Needing reinforcement for our exchanges my friend brought Artificial Intelligence into our communication. His AI of choice was Gemini, Bill Gates latest brainchild to the high tech world. My friend applied AI as if he believed it is an all knowing entity. There is only one all knowing entity, a benign creator who sent his only begotten son down to earth two thousand years ago to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. Obviously I was pessismistic about the abilities of AI. What surprised me was how evident it was that my scepticism was well founded.

Here are just a couple examples. Despite the fact a recent French finance minister admitted to considering an application to the International Monetary Fund to acquire a loan for the French government, and similar admissions from economists within the British government regarding their nation, my friend sent me texts indicating Gemini denial of such facts. This had occurred after I had informed him that France and the United Kingdom are in dire economic straits and were considering the effectiveness of getting an IMF loan. A further illustration of Britain and France's predicament is their low GDP, lower I pointed out to him, than Mississippi, the poorest state in America. Not so he countered, texting me a set of AI statements informing me that both national jurisdictions had higher GDP than five or six U.S. states.A recheck of the facts revealed Gemini was incorrect. Yet I did not bother to resend my results. By this time it was recognizable that my friend was trying to use Gemini to give himself the status of "expert" in the political field. Receiving a text that his tactic was achieving the opposite result might send him into a rage.

As it turned out my appeasement, like most appeasements, only delayed the inevitable. Our disagreement on Greenland was what sent him over the edge. He insisted that President Trumps desire to annex Greenland was not a military issue. This was an absurd assessment from my viewpoint. If Russia were to attack North America (full disclosure my sympathies are with the Moscow government in the Ukraine war) they would do so by launching missiles and aircraft over the Artic icecap. They would also order some of their submarines to push through the Polar ice to launch missiles at the New World. Greenland plays an important part in recognizing this development, and perhaps even countering it. So, perhaps, does the signal station on the Alert military base situated on Canadas Ellesmere Island. My friend indignantly insisted that this was not so, charging me with being deceptive. Greenland was about American greed he assured me. As proof he referenced the treaties between the U.S. and Denmark/Greenland which he said satisfied American military concerns. This reference is ironic. The 2004 revision to the original treaty insists on consensus with both the Danish and Greenland governents. Implied in the pact is the necessity of getting European Union administrative approval.The Danes will never go against the wishes of their European masters. Therefore in an emergency situation, perhaps involving nuclear missiles aimed at Canada, and the United States, Norad forces would be required to get the acquiescence for preventive military maneuvers from Denmark, The European Union, and Greenland. Surely nothing could go wrong there?

Of course one possible reason the Trump administration might have little confidence in the consultation process regarding military matters is their knowledge of history. In particular their grasp of the poor support Canada's Diefenbaker government gave the Kennedy administration during the Cuban missile crisis, refusing the U.S. Air Force flights over the Canadian north during the early days of the confrontation.

In truth it was evident to me there was no point in pursuing further communication with my friend on political, or historical, matters. His ignorance on certain issues was reinforced by a banal, perhaps malevolent, intelligence (?) tool.

Ever since Alan Turing (WWII, The Imitation Game) conceived, and attempted to achieve, the invention of an all knowing computer (machine) the march towards AI has been ongoing. Turings efforts in breaking the German military codes was of tremendous service in defeating that evil entity. Yet his goal of making an all knowing computer a reality was anything but a noble enterprise. In fact the opposite ws/is true. An all knowing computer, or computer system, will attempt, or the individuals who control it will attempt, to control all humanity. Slavery for mankind will become an all encompassing fate. Only the Lord God possesses the wisdom, and benevolence, to be omnipotent, while foregoing the temptation to put imperfect man under universal bondage!

Only hard work, whether it involves rolling up ones sleeves to get hands dirty, or putting pen to paper into the wee hours of the morning, or both, will achieve accomplishment. Such dedication is built on character. My friend has character in spades. He owes none of it to AI. AI will not give him something already in his possession. Regurgitating it's often dubious conclusions will not give him expertise.

As is true of so many temptress AI is a false seducer. It's pleasures are brief, and superficial. Let us human beings turn our back on it before humanity becomes Samson to Artificial Intelligence's Delilah!