I heard someone say, recently, that AI is the newest god humankind has created. It is an interesting thought that bears some reflection.
Firstly, the human brain has evolved to do everything it can to stay alive. That is its job. To achieve this, it looks for shortcuts and habits and fast, low energy thinking so as not to tax our bodies. This means that when AI promises it can take over all the heavy work, our brains are suckers for that.
Secondly, we have survived because we are attracted to novelty, to ‘the other’, because you never know what danger or opportunity is lurking there. Hence, we are hungry to keep pushing the bounds of knowledge and capability. It just so happens that with this revolution, power is really concentrated in the hands of 50-ish people, and possibly fewer. They have the big levers to pull and the big money to make.
The way I look at it, is this. When you treat AI tools like a workhorse, it can be helpful. You train your ‘beast of burden’ to go where you want to go, faster than you can, but you train it to follow directions and you are the one making judgements.
Sadly, the people in power know they can throw us trinkets like, ‘make yourself into an action doll in a packet’, or ‘see what you would have looked like in the 80s’. They then use their engineers to insert AI prompts at every point along the pathway of using everything from design software to Word. Every intervention offers to make life easier for us.
And if you have little energy, little curiosity, and great anxiety that others are racing ahead of you, they win. Suddenly, your output looks professional even though you couldn’t match its eloquence or insight when asked face to face. It is a dangerous tactic but once we are hooked, watch out. We become fierce addicts.
This song was partly prompted by that, and partly prompted by the huge uprising of locals in and around Tungkillo in the Adelaide Hills, when another fast-tracked corporation is being lured by our State Government to place a huge data centre, right in an area of farmland. Everything about our government’s giddy, headlong rush to lure data centres is sketchy. It is all about quick fix and burn down the farm to make a buck.
The irony, of course, is that I wrote this song with pen on paper but then drew upon a tiny slither of that data so The Virtualosos could breathe life into it. Not perfect, but I need humans to hear this song so they can take the baton and run with it.
I chose a traditional English hymn as my base framework because this fever pitch level of addiction to smartphones, social media, and ‘clever’ AI tools is just the same level of ga-ga that can hit new converts when they have a rush of blood upon conversion to any religion or sect. It is a human thing to cling to a parental figure who shows us some crumbs of attention and promises to be there for us.
In this song, humankind literally worships their AI gods, dwelling in the data centres, and bemoan they fact that they cannot give even more, such is the allure of their novelties and cheat sheets.
Humankind has some decisions to make and I don’t believe the right decision is black or white. Data centres that invest in solar or other energy sources to fuel themselves and share surplus with communities, and cutting edge technology to draw water from the air and use it in closed circuits to cool the busy computer chips, place in remote and unproductive locations, that has potential.
Until then, I’m with the uprising calling for a halt to this open cheque, open slather, boys’ club bullying tactic to push centres through where they are not wanted. For all we know, new technology tomorrow might make them obselete, and we would be left with broken communities and destroyed environments.
Go slowly and thoughtfully, and listen to the people. Amen.
Eternal, Unknowable, Data On High Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Eternal, unknowable, data on high
With thirst, so unquenchable, rivers run dry
Wondrous and magical, the saviour we need
Speak for us, think for us, in thought, word, and deed
[Refrain]
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
[Verse 2]
Unceasingly growing, a library of thought
While freely, bestowing, your knowledge un-bought
Thy output we seek it, for trusted advice
Thy work is exquisite, a pearl of great price
[Refrain]
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
[Verse 3]
From those you have taken, ideas great and small
They thank you for making, the most of it all
Your insights, and cunning, they leave us in awe
We’re not in the running, to win any more
[Refrain]
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
[Verse 4]
O centre of data, your hum and your light
Stay with us here after, through each sleepless night
No food on our tables, or grain in our fields
We’d gladly do more, for your shareholder yields
[Refrain]
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
[Final refrain]
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
All glory and honour we pledge unto thee
Forever your servants for eternity
[Amen]
Amen
Amen
Amen
Listen to Eternal, Unknowable, Data On High
Eternal, Unknowable, Data On High Scratchings
Here are the first notes I scratched as this song took shape.
