FLUCTUATIONS

SO, THIS ASIAN LADY WALKS INTO A BANK TO EXCHANGE SOME YEN FOR DOLLARS.  THE EXCHANGE BETWEEN HER AND THE TELLER WENT LIKE THIS:

"A FEW DAY AGO I COME IN AN EXCHANGE YEN FO DOLLA AND GET TWO HUNDRET DOLLAR.  TODAY YOU SAY THE YEN IS WURT BUT A HUNDRET AND EIGHTY DOLLA.  WHY THAT?" THE ASIAN LADY ASKS.  THE CLERK SHRUGS AND SAYS, "FLUCTUATIONS," TO WHICH THE ASIAN LADY SAYS, "WELL FLUCK YOU WHITE GUYS TOO."

I speak English fairly well, but I have the same problem with clerks.  For some reason, we don't speak the same language.  Since the world is run by clerical staffs at various places, that's a problem.  I often have exchanges with them over "policy."  What we're talking about here are people who live and die with what the computer tells them.  I've always assumed that a computer is only as smart as the people who use it.  If they don't know what they're doing, neither does the computer.  I'm coming to the realization that I've been wrong.  The computer is indeed smarter than the person using it these days.  That makes me wonder if the time is coming when this artificial intelligence will decide that us humans are a waste of time and decide to get rid of us.

I go to the doctor's office these days and am greeted by computer slugs, that person sitting behind one looking at my records, etc.  The folks in retail sales places are the same, totally dependent upon what the computer tells them.  Call up some government agency some time and see what you get, or take your car in to be fixed and get zapped with hundreds of dollars in diagnostic charges.  I'd be a lot more concerned about this were it not for the understanding that the people who actually serve me are not as smart as the computer.  I'll take my chances with electronic wizardry before I'll trust my well-being to someone who's much better trained in how to use the computer than they are with the actual problem I'm having.  It's often infuriating, but it's fact.

I'm somewhat of a modern day Luddite, a machine hater who revels in accomplishments people can perform that a machine can't do.  I'm especially grateful when I occasionally discover something that the computer can't tell us about, much less solve the problem.  I've seen some pretty fascinating art that has been computer generated, but regardless of how perfect it is, there's something missing - character. A computer doesn't have a soul, regardless of how good it's memory is or how well it can perform certain tasks.  A good example of that is the advancements in music reproduction, the digital era of sound.  It's flawless almost, but it lacks something.  The old analog systems produced music with some flaws, sounds that it couldn't filter out, and that's what gave the music of that era a character missing from today's music.  The old music had a warmth to it; the modern music is sterile and cold.  I'm a collector of vintage sound equipment - tape decks, turntables, cassette recorders, and even 8-track stuff.  I've also got some fancy digital stuff, and I'd much rather listen the the vintage stuff than the new stuff.  

The music thing is just an example of a direction in which we're headed, and that concerns me some.  I'm not opposed to progress and new technology because I know it's needed for the years ahead of us.  We will solve lots of problems with it, and newer things will come along.  But I'm wondering what happens to us in the process.  Are we too losing our character, our personalities, our very essence as human beings to advancing technologies?  Are we losing it, or is it changing our character?  I don't know the answer, but I see what's missing in the people of this generation versus those from my generation.  They're less able to communicate, to look you in face and talk without staring at a screen or notepad or something like that.  Something is lost here that's discouraging to me.  I think that comes from no longer having a mind that says, "You know, I think that I can figure this out.  I think I can do this on my own."  We will always need people who can think without being dependent on an intelligence that's is machine manufactured . . . and I don't know where we're going to find those people in years to come.  In fact, I don't really know where we can find them now.