Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
I believe the George Orwell book “1984” was first published in 1949. That was two years before I was even born. I’m sure I read that book, or at least parts of it, back in my high school days in the sixties.
The term “Big Brother is watching you” is familiar to me, but I could not give you a synopsis of the entire book. I do remember it being a dark look into a future that seemed scary, but a bit far-fetched to the post-WWII society that I knew and grew up in. TV’s Leave It to Beaver was a more accurate picture of the society that I knew as a youngster.
It was a fascinating prediction of the future, and it became more interesting as we approached the real 1984, when we began to see some of the concepts come to life. But in 1984, it was still decades away from reality.
But as the decades progressed, more and more of Big Brother’s shenanigans became a reality. I should read that book again, just to see how close it has become. Or maybe I shouldn’t, because what I discover might be more disturbing than I want to expose myself to.
For the purpose of this story, I will touch on some of the real things that are going on in our world that are causing me distress. I am no scholar of high tech; I do not understand everything they are doing with it, and I further don’t know how or even why.
I’m more of the old man that doesn’t want to know and is frustrated with what I am seeing and afraid of what these techies are throwing in our faces. It’s legitimately causing me deep concern about the world that I’m still living in, yet not up to speed with it.
AI is here to stay and is getting more productive every day. I have written several stories about my fears of how it is muddying up history with its phony pictures of cars that are identified as real but nowhere near them.
I’ve also tested its writing abilities by asking it things that only I should know the answer to, and it was surprisingly accurate. I started writing about these concerns two years ago, and it keeps getting better.
Just this week, news got out that our local Channel 2 news is being taken over by this technology and many of our beloved newscasters are losing their jobs to it. NOT a good thing in this old man’s thinking.
We have noticed for some time now how our phones are listening to us talk and running our thoughts through their algorithms. We know this because we see it all the time, and it is not coincidental that our phones become replete with ads for the very things we were talking about.
Just today, Carlene and I were talking about needing to get someone out to trim the big trees in our backyard. I have had at least a dozen ads for tree service on my phone, and Carlene is going through the same thing.
Now this one doesn’t bother me as much as some of the other high-tech intrusions in our life, and we have already invited one of them to give us an estimate to get it done.
BUT is this not Big Brother intruding into our world, like it or not? I believe it is. And, while sometimes it can be handy, I can see why some people don’t like it.
It would be different if we could control this by either opting in to the technology or opting out. I don’t like Big Brother deciding.
I’m sure glad I lived through the ’50s and ’60s. Give me simple…