Generative AI

Does a picture speak a thousand words? We may be in the process of truly finding out. Media changes bring about changes in human institutions, social interactions, economies…most all of what humans do.

One seemingly minor such change, (or is it?) : how the advent of using keyboards to communicate, has degraded the youngest generations’ ability to use, and even understand, script.

For now we still have other forms of written language, but what if we didn’t? The advent of written language changed things dramatically; what of it’s falling into disuse?

Are there “advents” occurring now, that portend great changes? Most would say yes.

For example, we have been noting here the changes brought by the addition of virtual video locations in how we relate to physical space for work, for learning, for healthcare, for social interactions etc etc.

But that’s just a subset of what the advent of the Internet has brought to our way of life.

Now along comes Generative AI.

Stable Diffusion is a text-to-image model that will empower billions of people to create stunning art within seconds.

Images are an obviously different form of media than plain old text. They “work” in our perceptive and conscious capabilities in different ways than text, but as is the conundrum of media, images also share some communication pathways with text.

(what’s ironic perhaps, is that generative AI, at least in the current manifestation, uses text to command the image creation.)

Our experience is a whole, but how is that whole created when we are using various media separately, or more commonly, together? Do we understand this at all?

If we are to soon be communicating through generative AI images…”stunning art in seconds for billions of people”… what will that mean for “everything”…including learning, healthcare, work, social interactions etc?

It’s likely not something we can guess at, or predict. It’s likely something we will learn AFTER the experience becomes ubiquitous.

Yes, that’s scary, especially since it’s “all happening so fast”. But history shows great changes sweeping through various civilizations at great speeds, and that humans have exhibited amazing capabilities of adapting.

But sometimes there’s such a thing as “too fast” for us to adapt without severe disruptions. Sometimes the adapting has to wait for the next generation to come along, seeped as they are in the new ways. Sometimes we all have to just let go of the way “it used to be”.