Grieving For the World Before Chat-GPT

Taking stock of the world pre chat-gpt, in a non fear-mongery way.

Back when the world was supposed to be getting better

Much like yourself, for the past couple of months, I’ve been bombarded with AI-related headlines.

And, much like yourself, I then discussed those same headlines with my peers, my clients, my friends, and finally, my self.

And like every other conversation about technology ever, I’m going to compare today with the “good all days,” which (coincidentally) are always the days when we’re a lot younger.

As of last week, I am 34 years old. A woman born and raised in the shadows of communism — a darkness that ironically lightened my naivety.

I didn’t have a computer until I was 13, a cellphone until I was 16, and affordable access to the internet until I was 19. I started working remotely at 21 (and still do.)

I grew up in a time when the world had magic. And luckily, that magic didn’t break until I was old enough to know how to cherish it.

I grew up in a time when kids were “good with computers” because we’d spend years saving for one, and even more years discovering how they worked.

I grew up in a time when people didn’t have opinions about everything, and when they did, those opinions rarely traveled further than a person’s own voice.

Sadly, I also grew up in a time when the world’s history, philosophy, and politics were written by old white men (still is) where we had monumental gender, race, and class inequality (still do) and not everyone had the privilege of traveling (still don’t.)

I grew up in a world that wasn’t better or worse, but different.

I have known a life pre-technology, pre-internet, and pre-anxiety.

But in the last three years alone, we’ve been through a global pandemic, an ego-fueled war, inflation, and now, immense technological “disruption.”

Luckily, it’s gotten better. But not because we fixed either of these issues, we’ve just collectively decided to forget and compartmentalize. We’ve simply learned how to jump faster and higher onto the next headline, the next thought piece, and the next dinner conversation.

After all, what can I possibly do about honor killings in Pakistan, kidnappings in Mexico, and the amount of plastic covering the streets in Vietnam? Nothing. So I move on…

Is this a good strategy? Maybe yes, probably not.

Yes, every industrial and technological advancement has had its pushback.

Yes, the world has never been more at peace.

Yes, things are objectively better.

But the truth is that I, for one, am tired.

If my parents fought for me to live in this new, better world they had envisioned, I am fighting for a world gone, a world my kids will only experience in history books.

A world where they don’t have a screen velcroed to their face 24/7, a world where they’re not surrounded by technologies that hijack and monetize their attention, a world where they don’t feel such immense social pressure to conform.

I’m grieving for a world lost.

A world that is not better, not worse, but one that is dying.

I only have cursory knowledge on some of these topics. I’m not a tech journalist, nor am I a programmer, a scientist, a psychologist, or a futurist. I can’t pretend to even begin to understand the implications this technology will have over us.

But I am human, and as a human, I am now standing on my soapbox to say “This needs more thoughtful handling.”

Evolution hasn’t even had a chance to catch up with the massive changes in human lifestyle that have taken place over the past few thousand years. What happens now? 

If these changes are truly meant to help us, humans, by expanding our brains and freeing up our time, why are we firing the very people that are meant to safeguard it? Why are we exploiting workers in poor countries to advance it? Why are we expecting a for-profit entity to do its due diligence and self-regulate?

It sounds to me like we want the outcome but not the process. How do you make someone think about consequences when they’re in a headlong rush toward wealth and power?

I worry that in this “AI arms race” we’re not considering the very people that are going to be the most affected, the ones that are too young to defend themselves…

I worry about future generations.

I look at Gen Z, the eldest of whom have barely finished school and are now walking into the job market wondering if they’ve lost before they’ve even begun.

They’re the first generation whose baby bath photos have filled Facebook’s clouds, the ones that had to deal with the pandemic during their formative years, the ones that have been seeing therapists since their tweens, the ones that are so connected yet so alone when it counts.

We’re expecting them to act like kids and preserve their own innocence while simultaneously selling them Instagram filters. We’re asking them to indebt themselves by staying in school when our educational system can no longer prepare them for the future. We make fun of them for their use of TikTok and then bully them into conformity for the very things that make them unique.

We’re asking them to run before they can walk.

We are so obsessed with conquering nature and fool-proofing our lives, that in the process we create new problems only to run faster and faster to stay where we are.

I understand that there is no measuring stick for something being, or not being, normal.

But enough time has passed for scientists to start noticing substantial behavioral changes in our kids: from developmental delays to suicide to social pressure and cyberbullying to anxiety over whether or not they can afford to have their own kids, they’ve faced it all because of us.

Because fear and greed have made us respect power over passion. Because we’re using an entire generation as guinea pigs.

We assume that every plane crash makes the next one less likely and that we’ll make better choices once we know better. But will we though? Will we stop to learn? Will we listen?

Maybe this is the doctrine of competing harms at play, and you have to sacrifice the many for the few.

Maybe you really can not have peace without the fear of nuclear weapons.

Maybe we should, just because we can.

The simplified logic is that as long as you’re valuable, you make the money you need for survival. What happens when 99% of the work is done by non-humans? What happens to work ownership and pride, the incentive to think and create? to individuality, to privacy? what happens to our sense of community?

I have absolutely no clue what is to come. But I know what’s been lost and I’m grieving for it.

PS. This thought piece was entirely brain-made. I fought the urge to copy it in ChatGPT for a quick review, I apologize for any typos and syntax mistakes. I am only human.

What do you think?

Am I overreacting? Am I underreacting?
Are you as exhausted by AI-related headlines as I am?

Was this worth reading?
Use the heart to let me know ❤️