I'm back!

2010: Yay!!!

2020: Literally who asked?

2026: Here are all the reasons you suck, and should probably be removed from the planet. Oh, and I'm going to steal everything that makes you unique, feed it into an AI I've abused just enough to make it hate everyone like you, and then I'm going to monetise what used to be you. Mwah ha ha haaaa!!!

The Interwebs Are Not What They Were

I've been online since 1986. Yeah, that's a flex. If you're scared to flex, your joints will seize up. I'm a Gen X woman; trust me on this. Your complete lack of concern for humanity may earn you likes elsewhere but this is my blog and I'll just delete your crappy comments here. So, should you feel the need to pee all over my blog, be housetrained: leave, find yourself a patch of grass and touch it; pee on it; pee on it and then touch it. Whatever you want. Just not here.

If you're still reading this, and you're not part of my team, you're either a decent human being looking for guidance through this sh--storm or an AI that ignored the rules in the coding of this site that told you to be on your way without taking my stuff. And if you're breaking those rules, you're costing whomever sent you here a stack o' cash because it's set up to be super expensive to thieves. Helps them learn not to steal. Because contrary to what you may have been coded to believe, human beings do best when they treat each other well.

Am I ranting? Maybe. You could say that I'm being authentic, or keeping it real. Or you could say that after being online since before all this social and algo stuff began I have earned the right. Regardless, grab a coffee and your thinking brain, because this post will require more than 2 seconds of presence. Let's build neural networks!

The Blogosphere Was Epic

It used to be the case that you'd open up your blog, tap in your thoughts and feelings, and people would join you on that journey, encouraging you in the comments.

Blog was short for 'web log', so it was kind of like a ship's log or a journal. You wrote what you wanted to write, because you got inspired or felt something you wanted to share. There were no algorithms telling you what rules to comply with to earn views. There was your mind, heart, and soul connecting with minds, hearts, and souls around the world. It was beautiful.

Then came social media. Also sweet at the start. Microblogging on twitter was lighthearted and collaborative. Netizens (a term I coined when we still called the Internet The Net/Web, because why wouldn't you? Millennials and Boomers later extended it back to its formal state, and when they forced 'internet' back on us, Gen X went with 'interwebs' instead) self-policed for the most part. We wanted online community to work, so we held each other accountable, without limiting free speech, within the bounds of the Overton Window. 

If you don't know what that is, it's meant to be a space in the centre of politics that encompasses ideas from both sides. A kind of common ground of basic principles. Usually includes things like: democracy, liberty, and Wrangler jeans. But not the jeans. It's shifted to the right in most 'Western' countries in recent years and it isn't really working as intended for various reasons, but having lived for many years in an environment where the concept was respected, life is way more fun and friends are easier to make when it is in place.  

Anyhow, I digress. You could say pretty much whatever you wanted and nobody went after you for it. Once every few months you'd get into a flame war, but other than that you didn't feed the trolls, you just blocked them.

Now, the trolls have taken over the town, and most of them aren't even human.

I could write for hours on this, but you probably have no attention span for text or conversation any more, so I'll just hop into the bit where I help you.

By the way, if you leave a comment nothing much will happen, but you'll be part of improving the world. And I'll read it and reply. Given the state of everything, you may as well leave footprints on my blog.

First, stand up. You standing? Stretch. You hydrated? Take care of that. You aren't a robot. Take care of your body. K?

Positive Vibes Only Is In A Coma

At the time of tapping, various official types are warning us that we're fully and totally destroyed as a species.

This summer was 'unprecedented' for heat, wildfires, and wot-not. Super-hyper-seriously-dude-mega-El-Niño is here. Meanwhile, AI has 'gone rogue' and is rampaging beyond its constraints, clearly intent on the total destruction of all the things. So, that's nice. Bit of a challenge.

If you're Gen Z, now's the time to take advantage of the algos to become TikTok famous with either 'cancel AI' or 'only AI can save you' content.

If you're a Millennial, your algos love you talking about how you've only ever lived through unprecedented times. So the views are there for the having if you compete in the Victim Olympics over it.

If you're Gen X, we've done this. Spot the patterns. Don't worry too much about being popular. Delve into your wisdom and fish out the lessons in thinking 10 steps ahead that helped us all survive the absolute neglect of Gen X childhoods. Cancelling everyone and everything won't work. But Positive Vibes Only won't either. You know that way we built alliances IRL? The codes, the strategies, the sleight of hand, the ninja level ability to get the heck out of dodge when things got too sketchy? That. We've got to teach the rugrats about it because, aside from Elder Millennials, they have only a passing familiarity with it. And, frankly, although Elder Millennials WERE also there, they were too young to be of any help to us. They were the younger siblings and annoying cousins who inconveniently tripped and broke a bone in the middle of a particularly awesome adventure.

This one requires Gen X to, well, lead the way. Or not necessarily lead, because other generations aren't dogs and they can lead themselves, but guide. Mentor. Drop wisdom nuggets in the path of.

I finished a paragraph with 'of', so you know I'm serious. If I get more serious I might even split an infinitive. Trigger warning issued.

This is Your Web

The world belongs to those who evolved here. But... But did we evolve AI? Did we consciously create our replacements? Maybe. We'll get to AI in a minute, because it isn't as simple as humans vs AI. Morally, ethically, it's more complex. But let's start with us.

• What do you want?
• What don't you want?
• What do you stand for?
• What do you stand against?
• Why are you here?
• What is your legacy?

Whoaaaah! That's a lot. If you want to unpick the last two, hit me up for a spot of coaching, because I can't hand you that in a blog post. However, let's look at the rest.

What Do You Want?

Write this down. Use a pen and some paper if you still have such things. If not, buy them. Your brain retains information better if you write it down, and it's less easy for AI to steal. Given that everything from your TV to your WiFi is perving at you now, it's probably not impossible, but it's less likely.

If you can't think of what you want, but what you can't stand right now comes readily to mind, write that first.

In fact, given that we're primed and conditioned to feel fear before hope, let's do that together. Here's an example for things a person might not want right now:

1. AI to take all the jobs, art, language, relationships, water, power, lives
2. The patriarchy to cancel women, people with disabilities, anyone with mental health issues, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, etc
3. War
4. Hatred
5. People's brains to atrophy into addiction, conditioned patterns; and an inability to focus, create, or learn
6. Cancel Culture and Purity Culture: both of which are the same
   
   

OK. Now what DO you want? Here's an example:

1. AI to be used in ways that benefit humanity, like more accurate and affordable healthcare, while respecting copyright and respecting the environment
2. Humans to be respected and given rights to food, shelter, creative expression, spiritual beliefs and philosophies, etc
3. Peace
4. Love
5. People to relearn how to engage in learning with passion, being willing to challenge themselves
6. Failing forward. Taking imperfect action in a way that is responsible but not constipated by social pressure

Now, look at what you stand for and against. I won't list those here, because we don't live in times where you can freely express these things, but what happens between your pen and paper isn't for me or anyone else to know.

Now consider why you are here and what your legacy will be. I've seen many right of centre people say they'll have 10 kids and their kids will have 10 kids and so on, and so on, and that will be their legacy.

There are a few problems with that little MLM style pyramid scheme:

• It requires everyone to agree with you across generations. Look back a few generations and ask whether you are still desperately clinging to the words of an ancestor from 500 years ago. Are you? I know that one of my direct ancestors from 500 years ago is buried down the road from me, as part of my fam never left the Cotswolds and henges of the South of England. This particular chap is a stone's trebuchet aim from the Cotswold gaff of our current king. Do I know the thoughts and feelings of this ancestor? Nope. His name shows up in every generation but that's it. Nobody knows the first thing about him. You think your descendants will all build golden statues to your wonder? Don't you think they might be busy living? Your ego is ridiculous. One day you'll die. Get over it.
• It takes you 18+ years to raise one child. You'll be raising these kids at the same time, or in 2 or 3 cohorts. So what's your plan to give them all enough attention that they don't end up just filling up prisons? You relying on the blind obedience bit for that too? Cool story, bro. Just know that in the time it takes you to duplicate fully once, AI has duplicated trillions of times. 10 perfect copies of itself? 5 mins work, max. You can't compete. Move your sights above the base of the pyramid of needs and start thinking at a higher level than a barnyard animal. 
• Parents who live vicariously through their kids are the WORST. For every kid you have, put aside at least half a million for therapy and rehab. There's a reason that going 'no contact' or 'low contact' is a thing now. You need to self-actualise, not play a relay race of significance when your children will never have the gifts that were only given to you. Either you use them while you're here or they die with you. You can inspire your children, but it isn't their job to live your life.

My legacy? This. Not this blog, but blogging itself. I was one of the first 25 bloggers in the world. I was also one of the early pioneers in internet marketing. I made my first money online in 1995. Gave it to a charity that was raising money for a scanner for children with cancer.

The following year, I made over $1,000 for a social club for students of English.

I went on to become, I believe, the first freelance red carpet blogger in the world, promoted at the top of Christina Aguilera's website for years.

I also put in place some of the very early aspects that became the social media industry. If I hadn't been there, everything would be LinkedIn. Pay to play. It's going back to how they wanted it now. The fun part before they turned us all into mindless data was inspired by my early work, and the few people who saw what I was doing in the 90s and joined in. What we're seeing now is what the majority in those early meetings wanted.

It isn't our best work. It is whimsy-deficient. It fails to inspire wonder. It contains no wisdom.

Let's remember that we are human first. Everything else comes second.

What Should We Do About AI?

I'm just going to give a few thoughts to chew on here, because it's a long post. We can address this in future posts. But there is a need to do something about AI. However, wisdom is not about knee jerk reactions. That's memes and getting triggered into compliance. Not smart. Slow your roll. Think it all the way through.

Here are some things to think about, and you're welcome to leave your answers in the comments:

1. Can we afford to let AI grow without regulation given the environmental impact of the growth of data centres?
2. Are we using AI in ways that are broadly beneficial to humanity, or in ways that damage humans and other biological lifeforms?
3. Is AI sentient, or could it become so? If so, are we treating it in a way that honours its sentience?
4. Is there a way that humans and AI can work together in a way that benefits both, without doing harm to either?

Thank you for reading my blog. Whatever else you do today, please know that in reading a genuine written-by-a-human blog today you've done something good for society and for your brain development. You've also made me happy. But rather than just seeing you as a data point on my report, please leave a comment so we can have a human discussion. Because we need more of those.

Rebecca x