Artificial Intelligence

 

Hayter for June 18, 2023        

Artificial Intelligence  

 

          Before I start with today’s topic, I need to take a moment to apologize to all of the people I’ve thought ill of over the years. I didn’t say anything about you, I merely thought it, which is so much better.  

          Without drawing this out any further, let me say that I am sorry for thinking of you as a jerk for keeping your blinker light on during a 20-mile drive through the town.  

          The only reason I bring it up is that Kay has reminded me of the few times I’ve neglected to turn off my blinker light. One can only imagine how long the light stays on when I’m driving alone. I would turn the blinking light off if I could hear the blinking thing!

I’ve learned that failure to turn off one’s turn indicator is due to the blinking sound losing its volume over the years. We drive a 2002 Highlander that makes more noise when I raise the windows than it does when I make a turn. Bottom line, I’m sorry for thinking that some of you you have been leaving your blinker lights on just to annoy me.  

          With that out of the way, let me jump into today’s topic, which is loosely related to turning signals. -- An advertisement popped up on YouTube yesterday that reminded me to pay for the YouTube no-commercial deal. It also forced me to listen to a guy wearing a suit, standing a mere foot away from downtown New York Traffic.

The ad-man mentioned how Elon Musk invested a trainload of money in the greatest concept ever devised by man or machine. Musk had already earned enough money to buy the State of Oklahoma. That was a deal-killer for me, but I was anxious to hear what he had to say before a cab hit him.

          The man finally shucked down the corn and mentioned the most valuable concept to date is the advances made in Artificial Intelligence. AI was first conceived in 1951 by a guy who created a machine that could play checkers. He intended to create the first atomic but that had been done six years prior.

          After checkers, a few scientists came up with a computer that could play chess. The first model was great, but a few Grand Masters managed to beat it. But in a couple of years, it was improved to the point where no human has yet to beat it. A one-armed orangutan came close, but only because it made some really bizarre moves, causing the computer to overthink. It seems like I read that somewhere.  

          Orangutan aside, in Jason Bourne movies, the governments of different countries set up cameras in cities all over the place. Somehow or other, the computers have collected pictures of a billion different people whose facial features have been downloaded so the individual can be identified. Such a device requires a boatload of data, depending on how many people you want to keep an eye on. Soon, schools will likely install such devices. 

          But let’s forget other people, the thing that will hurt me personally is the recent innovation that allows computer programs to write books, articles, essays, recipes, jokes, movie scripts, and whatever artificial thought is print-worthy. English teachers used to refer to “creative writing”, whereby the students develop a story around characters and situations that they invented

          If you’ve got the appropriate computer you can now describe a few characters, locations, general situations, and the length you’d like your story to be, and the computer will write it for you.

That reminds me of the ongoing writers’ strike against movie and TV production companies for the ridiculously low pay they’ve been giving their writers. The strike started in the U.S. on May 2 and is now spread over most countries that have companies that have TV and movie producers. The production companies in the U.S. are standing firm on their refusal to pay writers for their talent,

          The producers feel less pressure from the strike, thinking that AI will soon be doing the writing for them. AI technology is fast and it doesn’t mind working 24  hours a day. It will take a bit of refining, but in a year or so it will be possible to make new John Wayne movies, by placing a video of Wayne’s face over an actor or actress playing the role of Big John. The actor doesn’t have to have Wayne’s physique, but, he or she will have to act while wearing a green shirt and leotards with tiny white balls stuck all over ‘em. The AI John Wayne with words never spoken by the actor.    

          And where is all of this leading? The guy standing in downtown New York traffic suggested I buy stock in three to five of some of the new AI companies. As more and more AI innovations come along there will be less need for schools. No schools will mean fewer sporting events, less need for marching bands, and school plays. Less need for daycare, because 80 percent of all the labor will be accomplished by computer-guided machines. Computers that can devise their own product inspections.    

          Did anybody see the “Matrix” series, with Keanu Reeves? Anybody? Hokey smokes! unless some morally minded computers come along, we’re done for.

          Well, most of you are in deep doo. I won’t even live to I’ll live to be able to afford a car with a blinker light that has a volume knob. – That’s it. Time o for somebody to purchase some AI stock. Who knows, in 2024 you may be able to buy a county in Oklahoma. I recommend “Texas County”, located in the panhandle between “Cimmaron” and “Beaver”.  You can probably get the best price during the summer.

 

hayter.mark@gmail.com                         end

Life isn't what you make it.

 

                

                                  

Hayter for June 11, 2023 

            “Life is not what you make it”  

           I saw a news story last week about a couple of college graduates who had both received job offers from different companies shortly before they graduated. Upon graduating, each was informed that there were no jobs available.

The last thing they showed on the news was a segment on different graduation ceremonies across the country. There weren’t any sad faces in the crowds. At the end of each ceremony, square caps went flying, a lot of hugging and kissing took place, photos were taken, and parties were thrown. End of story.

At that point, I knew that I would not trade places with any of ‘em. I imagine there was a hefty percentage of the graduating class of 2023 whose plans for employment were shaky, to say the least. I feel their pain. Actually, I experienced their pain.

I’ve told different portions of the story a time or two, but most of you were too young to read at the time. So, here goes. -- I left Stephen F Austin
University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry.

The good thing about majoring in Forestry was that I didn’t have to take any foreign language courses. I had embarrassed myself during my high school Spanish classes and feared revisiting the experience in college.

So, no Spanish, but a boatload of classes in every type of science known to mankind at the time, other than astronomy. That was the one science subject I might’ve enjoyed.

After graduation, I returned to Pasadena, Texas as an unemployed Forester with no prospects. I sent a few resumes out to some forest management companies.

I couldn’t afford to wait to be hired by a tree-managing outfit, so I had to look for something local. When you live in Pasadena, your best bet is to try your luck at one of the refineries. Fortunately, Dad told me not to end up like he did; working in a refinery. Faris Hayter was married with kids when he got a job with Crown Refinery in Pasadena. He could never afford to turn down overtime. When you have a job you hate, and you can’t afford to turn down overtime, it’s considered the third level of purgatory.

Unlike my Dad, I had a college degree no one to support, and no job. I also had plans for marrying Kay Cross as soon as I got a decent job. I tried to get a job with the Railroad, but fortunately, had no luck. I did get a job as a forklift driver for a company that made cardboard oil cans. While I had four summers worth of forklift experience, I had never experienced moving pallets holding 10-foot towers of cardboard cans from the warehouse to the inside of an empty semi-truck trailer. The stack of cans had only two narrow straps around it.

I received no instructions on how best to make it from the ramp to the inside of the trailer without losing the entire load. I dumped the first load at the entrance to the trailer.  After that, I was assigned the job of building wooden shelves across a long wall. That was the extent of my instructions. After completing my first assignment, I quit the oil can company.

That’s when I went to the Texas Employment Agency, where I found one of the four most helpful people God ever put in my path. I was sitting in a foldout chair in a huge room waiting with everyone else for an interview. I eventually got to talk to a lady who talked to me about places that might need my service. She gave me applications for six different state-run outfits that would likely hire a forester.

She also got me a job at Ellington Air Force Base to file multiple stacks of info related to certain airmen. Regardless, it was the third toughest job I ever had. Different cabinets held different forms and I couldn’t keep straight which form belonged in which cabinet. Again, I received little instruction. For all I know, I sent different people to different air bases.

Before I could reroute an airport load of pilots, I received a letter from the Assistant Director of the Texas Forest Service, telling me to get my rear to A&M for an interview. I was confident that I bombed the interview, but the gentleman hired me that day. He showed me a whole stack of applications from foresters that he had considered, yet, he picked me. My grades in Forestry were average at best. You ask me, a Colonel from Ellington Air Force Base put a good word in for me.

In early November I was placed at Texas Forest Service,

District 6 headquarters located off FM 1488 south of Conroe. Kay and I married during the Thanksgiving break and we moved into an apartment in Conroe. By the way, it’s still there.  Fortunately, we aren’t.  

In a nutshell, that is my after-college job-search story. Over the years I’ve written about how, after two years, I quit the Forest Service, and Kay got a job to pay my way through Sam Houston State where I got my Masters in History and Political Science. This led to a teaching job at McCullough High in the Woodlands and later at Oak Ridge High. It was the greatest teaching experience in human history. I never told the kids that, because I didn’t know it at the time.

It was in 1980 that Barbara Fredricksen hired me to write a column for the Courier. She too is one of the most influential persons in my life. And, I owe all of this to a lady at the Texas Employment Agency. You know what that is? It’s a wonderment.

I do so hope that high school and college graduates of 2023 experience only wonderful wonderments. While doing so, you will find out that life is not “what you make it”. It requires a bunch of other people… some of whom you may never know.

 

hayter.mark@gmail.com                         end