Steven Levy has seen enough AI demos to think we should believe the hype. I’m still in wait and see mode.
Call me curious. Call me skeptical. Two sides of the same coin. The tech industry is dancing on the edge of a coin called Artificial Intelligence waiting to see which side lands face up. As they dance, we also dance, because the promise/hope/hype/hyperbole is that the technology will make lives better, fill lots of coffers, and set us all free (except for that sure to increase every year subscription price) to enjoy more of life.
Steven Levy has apparently seen enough demos that he has penned a piece telling us that It’s Time to Believe the AI Hype. It’s a well reasoned piece, as usual from Levy, and worth a read if you’re trying to follow what all of this means. But the moment that caught me was this quote:
Skeptics might try to claim that this is an industry-wide delusion, fueled by the prospect of massive profits. But the demos aren’t lying.
“But the demos aren’t lying.” They may not be. It all might come true. Or some of it. Or enough of it to matter. Even so, I’ve been around enough blocks too many times to stake anything on any demo for any product. Some do pan out. Too many do not. Given the pace of things in tech these days, I’m guessing that once the inevitable explosion yields to the equally inevitable contraction, there’s a better than average chance that we’ll be eyeing some other piece of universe altering tech within a year or two.
The reality is what’s coming in AI is coming. We’ll all get a taste. The proof wil be in how we digest whatever tech related nutrional value it offers.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
We’re stuck in political quicksand and there’s nothing to do but wait it out. But what’s the “it?”
If you’re stuck in quicksand they tell you not to move, not to struggle, or you’ll hasten your demise. The United States is stuck in a political quagmire. We’re stuck marking time as we sink. Struggling seems futile, yet necessary. Nevertheless instinct takes over and we do so thinking we can prevent whatever will happen this fall. No one knows what the result will be. No one knows what’s going to happen day to day until then. Unchartered waters? Flying blind? Stuck in the middle with you? Pick your metaphor. We’re there.
It certainly makes for uncertainty. It also yields what in essence is a trivial approach to most of what’s happening in the run up. Each thing that happens that looks like it might be news is, in reality, just confirmation of things most of us already know. Doesn’t matter if you’re voting one way or the other or not at all. Doesn’t matter whether you favor the assholes with an authoritarian bent or the buttheads trying to retain some semblance of the country’s foundations. We don’t know the result, but by and large we know that each step along the way is going to reinforce where we stand, what we think, and what we fear as we sink a bit deeper.
Pundits like to toss out the trope that most folks don’t pay attention to poltical campaigns until after Labor Day. That’s another myth that’s been busted in this myth-busting century we’re currently stumbling through. Most aren’t paying attention because most of what’s happening feels like endlessly watching the same Cars for Kids or Jardiance commercials. By the time we reach the Fall, it will be more insufferable.
Whether it’s issues of race, greed, or just screwing over those you don’t like, the sides are well drawn. Yet there’s this pretense in the media that there’s enough voters out there who haven’t made up their minds. It all seems a bit silly. Sure, some may change their minds depending on whether or not the decaying orange turd gets convicted. Heck, some might even change their mind if either of the two candidates kicks the bucket between now and the election. Although I’m sure we would have a debate if it was Trump who bit the bullet as to whether or not a dead man could still be elected to office.
We’ve seen the 2025 plan. We know what that means. We certainly know enough of what Biden is going to do. The Supreme Court, the supposed referees, have already declared their preference. The only surprises left are just how ugly the fight over the trivial will become.
Meanwhile the clock ticks.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
We’re in the final throes of packing our lives into boxes as we await the furniture movers tomorrow so Sunday Morning Reading remains on hiatus this weekend, hopefully to resume next weekend. Thanks to the friends and family who helped move more boxes than anyone hoped to count yesterday. That went as smooth as anyone could have hoped for.
Today is final pack up day. The kitchen has been moved, as has the most of the rest of the stuff from other rooms, but of course breaking down the office and computers to move is the last thing on the punch list.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
A great story about how technology can help give voice to the voiceless.
This is a terrific story. Jordyn Zimmerman is autistic and nonspeaking. She uses an iPad and Apple’s Assistive Touch and Live Speech accessibilty features to give voice to her thoughts.
She’s accomplished quite a bit since she began using the technology. It’s an amazing story and one you should watch. Here’s the video.
Hat tip to my friend Sumocat for alerting me to this.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
We’re in the process of packing our lives into boxes preparing to move so Sunday Morning Reading is on hiatus this weekend and next.
Happy Mother’s Day and catch you back here in a couple of weeks.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Buried Treasure? My wife discovered her iPod Nano and iPod touch while packing to move.
When you’re packing to move you discover all sorts of things when you start rummaging through closets and under beds. Last night, my wife dug up these treasures.
An iPod Nano and an iPod Touch, her first forays into Apple devices. We no longer even have a charger in the house anymore to plug in the iPod Nano. Unless we uncover more treasures. Memories.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Our judicial system has been exposed as corrupt beyond repair, much like our political systems. Neither is going to save us from a deranged orange tinged rapist who is willing to blow anything and everything up. Regardless of how the election turns out.
Destroying musical instruments for advertising purposes is apparently a sin against nature.
There are bears in the woods.
There are no answers for the problems in the Middle East. Too many prayers. Not enough thoughts.
Let iPads be iPads. Trying to be all things to all people doesn’t work in life, and I don’t think it works in tech.
Years ago when I was a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs I attended an MVP Summit in Redmond. It was an exciting and stresssful moment for Tablet PC advocates, of which I was one. The winds of change were kicking up and hinting that Microsoft would favor Touch over pen based Tablet PCs in the future. For broader context, the PC Pundit industry had already declared the Tablet PC a largely failed niche device.
Then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was to give the keynote and take questions from the audience. As I lined up to ask a question I noticed that he was taking notes on a piece of legal paper. I never got a chance to ask my question which is probably a good thing because I changed what I had prepared to ask. Had I gotten the chance I was going to ask why he wasn’t using a Tablet PC to take notes. It certainly would have made a big statement if he had done so. It certainly did make one that he didn’t.
Preparing to watch Apple’s recent Let Loose announcement about new iPads I was reminded of that moment in watching the usual, now almost cliché, iPad criticism flow through my social media timelines. There are two routinely rhetorical responses about the iPad:
The iPad lineup is confusing.
The iPad Pro needs to be more Mac like and/or run macOS.
Each of the above is true. Clichés are rooted in variants of truth. Yes, there is confusion, but on the first point I think Apple largely let loose the air out of a that balloon.
There’s now an easy roadmap to follow if you’re interested in a full-sized iPad. $349 will get you an iPad without many of the bells and whistles, perfect for a child or a mother-in-law. You can spend upwards of $3000 for the fully kitted out iPad Pro. Or you can settle in the middle for a $700 starting point for the iPad Air that now includes most of the technology previously only seen in the iPad Pro lineup. That all makes good sense to me. Oh, and the iPad mini is still around and I’m guessing we’ll see an update of that later this fall.
Apple is largely to blame for the second confusion point, due to a rare misfire in its marketing years ago. Before we had Apple Silicon in MacBooks things weren’t looking great for the MacBook. There was lots of talk about the iPad being the future and what it would take to make it so. Apple even launched a What’s a Computer? campaign in 2017 promoting iPads that helped confused the issue.
Tech pundits took their cue. They pushed the envelope on their devices and pushed Apple to keep on keeping on and the iPad Pro (introduced in 2015) kept getting more powerful and more capable right along side the “The iPad is the only computer I need but it needs more” stories. But hardware is only part of the story.
Things continued to get confusing when Apple split the iOS operating system into two and birthed iPadOS in 2019. Certainly that hinted at more to come from the software. Even so, the software narrative continued to feel incomplete while the parallel story of the immediate success of Apple Silicon Macs intensified the dissatisfaction.
Now, let me be clear. I’m not one of those who feels the iPad needs to be more Mac like or run macOS. Could there be advancements to iOS? Yes. I’d love the File system to work more intuitively. Quite frankly, I’m fine with how iPads sort of multi-task now, Stage Manager being the exception.
I use an iPad Pro with a keyboard at times, but I mostly use it as a tablet in landscape mode for work with an Apple Pencil. I’m a use the right tool for the job kind of guy when it comes to tech. Since both Microsoft and I abandoned Tablet PCS, an iPad has always been the right tool for most of my work in the theatre, alongside a Mac for portions of that and other work. I don’t see that changing, given that I’ve tried most of the other tablet options out there. Let iPads be iPads and Macs be Macs. Trying to be all things to all people doesn’t work in life, and I don’t think it works in tech.
In my view, the “iPadOS isn’t complete until it can be a Mac software” story has created a myth like reverse branding similar to the negative one of Microsoft’s Tablet PC. So much so at this point, I don’t think Apple will ever be able to counteract it, even if it did create an iPadOS that runs macOS or some version of it. And that’s a damn shame.
I made this comment prior to the Let Loose event, yesterday.
I could very easily be wrong, but I don’t think we’ll ever see that mythical iPad that some wish for. Personally I don’t think it’s necessary and I’d be more than happy if we just let iPads be iPads and Macs be Macs. We’ll see how and if the story changes at WWDC in a few weeks. I’m guessing it won’t and I’m just fine with that.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
“Good media is the Fourth Estate.” says Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The New York Times. He continues with “it’s another pillar of democracy.” All well and good. As far as it goes. It doesn’t even come close to going far enough apparently for the folks at the Times. This interview in Semafor certainly proves Kahn and his publisher A. G.Sulzberger are missing the story, the point, and the knife at their own throats.
Here’s the quote that opens up the window on their self-centered delusion:
It’s also true that Trump could win this election in a popular vote. Given that Trump’s not in office, it will probably be fair. And there’s a very good chance, based on our polling and other independent polling, that he will win that election in a popular vote. So there are people out there in the world who may decide, based on their democratic rights, to elect Donald Trump as president. It is not the job of the news media to prevent that from happening. It’s the job of Biden and the people around Biden to prevent that from happening.
Again, as far as it goes it makes sense AND what I think many of us believed about how journalism should work in our political system. But that political system doesn’t exist anymore. You have to have some powerful blinders to not see that. Either that or be far too comfortable living within a myth of mostly your own making.
The very political system that guarantees The Times it’s right to think, write, and publish that way is being threatened by someone and a party that aren’t shy about abandoning the constitution that guarantees Kahn the ability to do his job as he sees it.
As I say far too often the media will cover its own funeral until the last shovel of dirt is tossed into the grave. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, you aren’t paying attention.
You can read the entire interview here. Photo by Olkesandr_U
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Some Sunday Morning Reading to share amidst prepping to move.
I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to rub elbows with folks from all corners of life. Those who live the high life, those who live the low, and many in between. One thing those on the high side have in common is that however they achieved their status above it all is their predilection towards self-delusion increases commensurate with the size of their bank accounts. The first few links in this edition of Sunday Morning Reading feature three interesting pieces about life on that side of the tracks.
The Blindness of Elites by Thomas Chatteron Williams takes on Walter Kirn and the empty politics of defiance revealing how much of a luxury it is to make life up as you go along. It also reveals how wacky it is when elites go after others for being elite.
This piece by Elizabeth Mika is from 2016 but it could have been written at any point since, so it’s worth a revisit. The Pivoting: On Narcissistic Collusion of How Evil “just happens” reminds us that we can’t escape black holes, especially those of our own making.
Dan Adler takes on The Life and Times of Fergie Chambers. It’s a strange journey into the life of a rich, radical communist with time on his hands that only money can buy.
David Todd McCarty says America is in crisis because voters are completely uninformed. I concur. That’s a state that doesn’t get votes in the Electoral College, but it’s one too many prefer to live in. Check out For They Know Not What They Do.
Changing course, last week Natasha MH wrote about dancing. This week she’s ridiing carousels in Riding the Taylor Swift Carousel.
And closing things out this week is Anne Spollen with An Unedited Day In An Ordinary Life. Pro Tip: Every day is unedited. Often we’d be better off trying not to make it make too much sense.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 