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Diana's avatar

Depressing although eloquently written... Proud to say I haven’t seen any of those films or read any of those books - and will definitely watch Brian and Charles. Thank you.

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Paul M Sotkiewicz's avatar

Brian, you should ended the opening paragraph with, “kids! Get off my lawn!” I wish I could find something to disagree with but unfortunately you have hit on something that is not only endemic to cultural realms such as books, music, and film, but also more serious and even academic pursuits.

I see two very distinct kinds of creativity. The first is in the arts as you address here and something in which my 12 year old daughter excels. Art, story telling are things she is discovering and I want to foster as it is a talent that seems to be in short supply these days. The second is the ability to take seeming disparate pieces of information to find connections and patterns that heretofore have been otherwise hidden. I personally have made a career out of the latter as an energy economist with a history background touching other disciplines such as operations research and power systems engineering. I see much of that in your work and writing and that is perhaps why I continue to be drawn to your Substack and Twitter. It is always a learning experience for me (at 55 I learn everyday).

We see how AI type thinking, pre AI, has pervaded a academic economics in many places. The sure way to get tenure is to recycle old material, with some incremental advance, to get published. Risk taking only happens now after one gets tenure, and then what incentive is there to do that?

I see it in the energy industry on a regular basis in hiring decisions, policies, and regulatory matters. Stick the “safe” route, even if we know it does not work, because at least you can keep your job and positions reputationally. Engineers then try to play economist or historian or lawyer or computational expert. Not that it cannot work with a well rounded experience, but such well rounded experience is discouraged and people get pigeonholed into a certain role and never can see the bigger picture. Liberal arts education and background is now actively discouraged despite the fact a good Liberal Arts education fosters the creativity that I have thrived upon. (I have undergrad degree in history and Econ with am emphasis is military, diplomatic, and Russian/Soviet history...the the wall fell).

The conclusion to all this is AI is just an extension of thinking and biases that already exist in the world today and all AI will do is cement this thinking and be unable to problem solve as the world changes, or create solutions to evolving problems. AI is simply not capable of the critical thinking required in a world full of complexity that will require thinking outside the box creatively. Now kids, get off my lawn!

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