Photo Journal Part 3: A Literal Walk Around the Block

 I literally walked around the block. 

Comment on what pictures you liked the best and give suggestions for what I should look for on my next walk. 

Photo Journal Part 2

    Leah and I went to Shanandoah for our Valentine's Day date. It was pretty cold but we saw geese! I'm hoping tp improve my photography skills and Leah was kind enough to go down by the river even in the cold so I hope you enjoy. Did I mention it was cold?

Goose!

 

A Photo Journal Part I: I Took A Walk

 Another New Year resolution for the year was to improve my photography skills. I have been able to get out and walk around town this past wednesday. Here are a few of the sites I saw. I hope you enjoy.

My adopted home

AI'll Be Back!

My routine is pretty simple, I wake up, read my Bible reading plan, and spend the next 20 minutes scrolling my Google article feed. If I have more time before I have to get ready to run off to work, I scroll my FB or X feeds. Eat breakfast and I am out the door.  On my lunch hour, I will text my wife while auto-correct messes up my jokes. I come home, eat dinner, put the kids to bed and then my wife and I discuss what to watch on the streaming services.  We frequently look at the suggestions based on previous watches before deciding to watch a movie we have already watched at some point during our marriage. I wake up and do it all over again. Algorithms are such a basic part of our lives we don't stop to think how often we depend on computers, to curate our news intake, finish our messages, or even to show us new options for entertainment.

To my limited understanding of the World of technology, AI is already in place in our lives.  So what is the fear about? I have heard everything from it is taking jobs, making people stupid, stealing our art, and will eventually send Arnold Schwarzenegger to kill Sarah Connor (auto correct also basically spelled Arnold Schwarzenegger for me). 

So what does any of this have to do with the world of history? What if AI could be used to sift through journals, document collections and books then produce a report with a list of sources that fit the criteria for the research question the historian was asking.  Then the historian could analyze and evaluate these sources, narrow in on answers and then do it again. You may ask, would this not put graduate assistants out of a job.  Depriving them of much needed research experience? Well, yes but what if this AI actually freed GAs to do something else, like work on their own research. Now there are two researchers sifting through reports and sources. I don't generally take the argument that AI will put us out of work too seriously. Humans are very adaptable. 

What about AI doing all the research for us and will make us all stupid. At this point from my understanding AI doesn't analyze information. It can evaluate under parameters that Humans set for it. But what about all the cheating that AI causes if a student is going to cheat with AI then maybe they were going to cheat without it. Point being, cheaters are going to cheat no matter the tools available. If AI is going to be used for cheating then AI could be used to catch cheating. An AI program could be outfitted with AI markers that can be spotted using AI grading tools. Teachers will figure it out. Again I am personally not worried about society degenerating because there is another tool to cheat on academic testing.  

As for AI taking over the world and sending a terminating robot to destroy the only hope of the future? Well only time will tell about that.