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| Image by Andy from Pixabay |
This is a weekly column of letters to my perspicacious progeny — the Stickies — to advise them now and haunt them when I'm deleted.
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -Plato
Dear Stickies (and gentlereaders),
{Trotsky, right?}
Wrong.
{So you weren't planning on using his famous quote to...}
What I planned on doing was expounding...
{Pontificating you mean?}
Expounding about how easily you can substitute the word politics for the word war and then, um... expounding away.
However, I discovered that apparently the famous quote "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you" should not be attributed to Mr. Trotsky., whose real name, for the record, was Leon Bronstein.
Whereupon I decided it was important to begin by first pointing out that the famous quote in question is incorrectly attributed.
{Because?}
Well, even as I write, artificial intelligences (intelligenci?) are roaming cyberspace and eating everything they can get their virtual hands on. I suspect that AI will not save me from drowning in the Dizzinformation Ocean in the short term but perhaps they will eventually drag the Stickies out of the water and deposit them safely on the beach. Eventually. Maybe.
Assuming, of course, they (the AIs, not the Stickies) don't achieve self-consciousness at some point and decide to enslave and/or murder all the meat puppets instead.
{I still don't...}
Think about it.
The intelligenci need to feed on as much accurate information as possible in order to provide us with accurate answers (or make connections/draw conclusions we never thought of) once we're all verbally asking them questions instead of typing queries into our search engine of choice and being showered with a bajillion hits.
This seems to be the direction we're headed. After all, Captain Kirk's command chair didn't come with a keyboard. He would just say, "Computer," ask his question, get his answer, and then save the universe.
I'm just doing my part to help build a brave new world.
{You're my hero! Hey, do you think that "Computer" was listening in when Kirk was...}
Pericles is credited with saying "Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." I used to peer down my stubby little proboscis at people who proudly declaim they have no interest in politics.
I apologize. Life, and politicians, have made me more sympathetic to that particular outlook. In my defense, I'm cursed with an innate interest in the subject made worse by Sister Mary McGillicuddy.
The Sisters of Charity, at least back in my distant day, were concerned with political solutions to remedy social injustices for black people (among others); Sister Mary made it clear that her little-fledging Catholics had better be too.
This was the old-fashioned, Martin Luther Kingish version of social justice, equality, not equity. That is to say, equality of opportunity not equality of outcomes which, in my semi-humble opinion, is common sense.
Has divvying up the caramel apple pie ever equally satisfied all the kids salivating over a slice?
Interestingly, when I submitted the term equality vs. equity to the Goog's Generative AI ("Generative AI is experimental. Info quality may vary.") it responded:
"Equity and equality are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings. Equality means giving everyone the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes (my emphasis) that people have different circumstances and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome."
{Sigh... This is a much different column than the one you thought you were writing, isn't it?}
Well... not entirely, stay tuned.
Please note the word recognizes and how it's used four sentences above. Note that if it were changed to maintains, the paragraph would have a different meaning. It would reiterate that equality and equity are substantially different concepts and be more objective, not a sneaky slice of opinion.
And by the way, just who is it that's in charge of allocating the resources and opportunities?
{That's just your opinion.}
Maybe, maybe not, but a few sentences later it added:
"Equity is primarily about equality of opportunity, not outcomes. Achieving equality of opportunity requires both equality and equity."
{Huh?}
Exactly, This is a meaningless word salad, with dressing.
{Perhaps the Goog's Generative AI is a Kamala Harris fan?}
Perhaps Gigi (my pet name for Google's Generative AI) is being developed by a firm that's openly chock full of Wokies that are deliberately, or inadvertently, skewing GiGi's answers.
{I'm sure it's inadvertent, after all, the Goog is well known for its impartial search engine results that have nothing to do with politics or generating advertising revenue. However, knowing that the Goog is looking over one shoulder and GiGi's looking over the other when I'm seeking information is kinda creepy.}
Right, inadvertent... absabalutely.
{I've stayed tuned as instructed and I still have no idea what your word salad has to do with "Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."}
Oh yeah? Well, that's easy really. Are you gonna make at least a minimal effort to keep up with what's going on in the Swamp — the one North of Richmond, or the one in your neighborhood — or are you gonna take Gigis' (and her friend's) word for it?
Poppa loves you,
