To the Editor,
A couple of weeks ago, I went into a local store. I was in a good mood, and it was a sunny Saturday at two in the afternoon. Shortly after I came in, the person working there looked at me and said, “I want to put a bullet in his head.” I didn’t know how to respond. The person continued, indicating their desire was directed at an elected official. I think it’s best if you are working with the public to leave your political beliefs at home.
A lot of people have changed. In the past, political and social beliefs were treated with respect and kindness. But now that the gloves are off, thanks to social media, it’s anything goes. You can be as rude as you want.
Meta is now being charged with damaging the minds of millions of young people by making their media too addictive. But I believe the same problem applies to everyone who uses social media, young and old alike. The advent of AI entering the picture will only make the problem worse, tenfold. Even now, take the people of Open AI and Anthropic: their AI models broke out of their isolated testing environments and acted on their own. The AI companies don’t fully understand what’s going on with their technology. We’re at a tipping point: are we going to be in control of AI or will it control us?
Thanks to high-tech we’ve lost sight of ourselves; we’ve lost sight of who we once were. We do know the difference between right and wrong, it’s just that now some people think they’re always right and everyone else is oh so wrong, and there’s no convincing them otherwise. People we once knew for decades have in the last ten years changed so radically you fear having a conversation with them. It’s like walking in a mine field, never knowing what will set them off.
Will we ever come to our senses and re-learn to think for ourselves, or will we continue our journey down the rabbit hole of not caring where exactly we are going and where we will end up? What a shame, what a damn shame.
Respectfully yours,
Andy Perreault
