Author: Ron Baker

I remember starting my first blog posts in 2005.  My mentor in blogging, Randall Friesen, said, “Don’t start unless you plan on continuing daily”.  One of his friends took an early stance on linking thoughts and other blogs.  Another good idea. 

But certain seasons are harder than others.  As one relative pointed out to me, I haven’t been as prolific lately.  Not that I don’t have thoughts – but two questions arise:  Is my writing meaningful to anyone other than myself? / What platform is the best in this digital age?

And in my ear rings the advice of many of those who have mentored me in writing – “Just write”.  Writing is “good” for me.  I’ve journaled daily for 30 years.  Blogged for almost 20 years.  And taken on other writing projects.

What does “good” mean?  Well, here is the link to one aspect, prompted by a newsletter from Carey Nieuwhof.  The 71 word thought comes from Seth Godin’s blog of October 19, 2024 (you can Google this and find the link by using those descriptors).  Here is the quote:

“Confused about good”

How often do we assume that popular things are good, and that good things become popular?

If your work doesn’t catch on, does that mean it wasn’t good?

In almost every field, people with insight, taste and experience admire and emulate good things that aren’t popular, and are surprised by popular things that aren’t good.

Perhaps we need to broaden our definition (or narrow it) so we can be clear about what we mean.

When the abacus becomes an instrument of prediction we have moved into artificial intelligence. 

A great sentence that needs to be unpacked.

A computer was generally seen as a machine faster than a human at processing numbers and objects.  To go beyond mere numbers, to predict beyond reasoned extrapolations, you generally stepped outside the abacus of calculations and found a prophet, soothsayer or mystic who dealt in wonder. 

Worked for millennia.  After the human and the machine could no longer see further than the computation they had completed then wonder followed.  The prophet was revered – especially if they were right all the time!  They had a special connection to the unseen, the supernatural, the divine.

In some ways the current generation (and a few before) have moved firmly into a scientistic mindset.  All understanding is expected to be evidence based.  Rule out/erase the idea that knowledge and wisdom are separate from each other.  When you have accumulated enough information you should be able to project accurate results thus generating wisdom to be disseminated to those around you.

This mindset promotes Artificial Intelligence as understood in a Western Mindset.  Thus the oft heard statement that AI is “of the devil” or “evil”.  When revelation is eliminated, wonder is lost.  This heads onto another path I won’t follow today – into a philosophical discussion of the modern mindset, the post-modern mindset and now the ambivalent (or “paradoxical”) mindset.  A spoiler alert – you might just find that our point in time isn’t the first time this cycle has happened.

But does that make AI evil?

Canada’s Parliament has had a motion before the House of Commons – placed on notice November 27, 2024 (meaning the motion is there but has not been passed).  This is a private members bill – which places the motion as less of a priority and more of a stance (at least from my perspective).  Below is the motion text:

M-171 Canadian Christian Month

44th Parliament, 1st Session

Jean Yip – Liberal = Scarborough—Agincourt, Ontario

Motion Text

That:
(a) the House recognize that,
(i) the month of December is significant in the Christian calendar as it marks the beginning of advent and Christmas,
(ii) there are 19.3 million Canadians identifying as Christian,
(iii) Christianity in Canada is an example of our diversity, as Canada is home to more than 340 Christian denominations; and
(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should designate the month of December, every year, as Canadian Christian Month.

AI and Me!

That’s a topic to explore – with maybe more than one or two caves to venture into.

Let’s start back in my high school days.  Let me situate that in actual light years – or rather on a calendar.  Look to the late 1960’s.  Campbell Collegiate in Regina, SK is on the cutting edge of technology.  We have one course in computer programming in my final year of high school.  I learned a language that is now fairly well obsolete – Fortran IV (pronounced Fortran Four).

The handwritten programming script was sent to another high school in town – Balfour – where typists would create punch cards.  The punch cards would be run through a “computer” (which at that point had vacuum tubes and was located in a high-security area with air conditioning and dust control).  Errors would be detected and the process would start all over again until a satisfactory answer was spit out on computer paper.

Our class toured the actual computer facility run by a provincial crown corporation.  The hype around this new technology was immense.  IBM was prominent, programming (coding) was a new and untested area of vocation and we were the generation that would usher in this new approach to life and living.  One of my fellow students ended up a few years later at MIT and, as I understand the timeline, was involved in some of the world’s initial AI development.

Imagine the curiosity that flowed in the conversations of that class.  We were taught to be open to a new way of doing things.  I’m sure previous generations were antagonistic to what we were doing – we wrote them off as uninformed.  Some forward thinkers would encourage us – we welcomed their applause.  Who could have imagined that the abacus of long ago would evolve into today’s AI?

But even then I had some reservations.  Triggered by watching a movie in Grade 10.  If you guessed “2001 – a Space Odyssey” you might know where I am heading.