Loading ...Even in my memory you had to talk to someone if you wanted anything. A loaf of bread. A pound of apples. 4oz of cheese, 3 gallons of Regular. A pint of beer. Car insurance. A ferry ticket (we couldn’t afford flights). And if we went to France, or Italy, we had to talk to someone in French, or Italian. Now you not only can, but are encouraged or compelled to, do everything on-line or with QR scans including payments. Or use ‘translate’, even the Babel fish has become a reality. Debates now are between Grok and Claude, nobody’s personal opinion is worth a rat’s bum. So AI is enhancing the unsocial revolution, making it unnecessary, even undesirable, to talk to anyone.
And people wonder why there is an epidemic of loneliness. If you now ChatGPT the issue – you’re part of the problem. Instead, ring someone up, invite them round for a coffee or beer (restaurants and pubs being soulless, peopleless self-serving (in every sense of the phrase) places, and discuss it. Orwell only got half way: “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. We’re now at the point where merely speaking is fighting the machine.