Artificial General Intelligence and the Future

I do have a concern it’s going to make us more stupid and less skilled down the road. I’m going to keep my kids away from it as long as I can until they (hopefully) become critical thinkers.

 

That ships sailed a long time ago.

 

I worry about that as well. I see that just from the advent of the interwebz and social media tools have exacerbated the stupidity and gullibility of more people than I expected.

 

Another smaller part of it is the extent of corporate consolidation, death of small businesses and the rise of jobs that are essentially adult daycare. Quite literally people just don’t know how to do as much shit as they used to.

But to your point I think the tech/social media thing making people dumber is interesting to look at through a generational lens. I generally resist broad overwrought generalizations about generations but leading a lot of Gen Z folks I can confidently say they are less willing/ less capable when it comes to thinking critically.

 

I can confidently say gen z is no worse than other generations and you are just walking down a path of generational bias that is thousands of years old.

 

Get off my lawn, all of GenZ are morons!!!!

Seriously, every generation has a lot of morons. Those morons just learn how to mostly function in society over time, but it’s additive and the morons standing on the shoulders of other morons will lead to the downfall of society.

 

We’ve lived in this house and gone to the same grocery store a mile away for 20 years and my 16 yr old with his new license had to get on gps to get there. Embarrassing.

 

I blame the parents.

 

this is true. Many battles though so sometimes you just move on or you’d be barking at them all the time.

 

For me, just my perception, it is not a generational thing. I know alot of old farts that are clueless, gullible and are either incapable or just lazy when it comes to critical thinking.

When my kids challenged why I was teaching them something they deemed of little, to no, consequence, I told them it was so they could survive after I died.

Remember how confused you were when your parents made you learn their name (not just Mom/Dad) and memorize the home phone number? When they explained why, it made so much sense.

 

Trick I used with grandkids when I was allowed to pick them up from an event or going to pick up one of their friends. I would make them tell me how to get to their house or their friends. Even if I knew how. No phone or GPS allowed.

What happens if you don't know address to put in GPS? What happens if phone dies or you forgot charger or no signal? What if there is a Zombie Apocalypse (now this will make them perk up)?

 

man I did that to my son from a friends house 10 minutes away. We got on our street on the other end and he actually turned off of it. Took us 30 minutes to get home. He recognized the area around his elementary school and drove the bus route home. And wasn’t happy when I asked him to go ahead and make all the stops.

 

The number of kids nowadays who couldn’t find their way home across town without modern GPS technology is higher than people think imo. Not that I even necessarily blame them totally, just a product of the times we are in currently. An entire generation not having to have ever think about where they literally are on the map has made many of the Zoomers directionally challenged

 

I made my kids drive from here to Fort Wayne and back this past May. I occasionally checked the GPS on my phone on the way home to see how long it should take to get somewhere, but I forbade them from using it.

 

I can believe that. It is unfortunate.

Not learning to read a map or have directional awareness, how long it takes to go 250 miles at 60 mph, how to read a clock with hands, how to make change when an old man hands you hard currency, knowledge of basic civics of your country and how it works, or the difference between a country and a continent and where they are located on a globe are life skills that should not be overlooked or forsaken.

I will choose my impact driver, but I know how to use a screwdriver and the difference in a phillips head and a flat. I will choose my chainsaw, but I can cut a tree with an axe. I will use the calculator on my phone but I can cipher on paper if required.

Side Note: taking the "is the old man still competent" test. Nurse told me to draw a clock and put quarter past 10 on it. I drew a box and put 10:15 in it. I said, "oh, you want analog vs digital, my bad."

 

I really don't think I am, but I will certainly acknowledge that while I do have a lot of people working under me who are smart and ambitious, my views are obviously based on anecdotal experience and I have no idea the extent to which it might be the same or different with people in other industries, educational backgrounds, etc.

Edit: But I do agree they are no worse than other generations. To go along with my observation which was a negative one, I could also go into deep detail about the characteristics I notice with them that imo are more pronounced with them than other generations that I respect and admire.

 

I may have brought this up before (I'm old, I reserve the right to repeat myself), but we had a management class with a cheat sheet that outlined 4 generations and their generic workplace characteristics, their motivations and distrusts, etc. It was pretty helpful, as long you remember not everybody is the same.

 

We hand our kids an Atlas when we go on a road trip and tell them to get us there. I have Waze running on my phone just for the police alerts.

 

Not the worst idea to train their brain with literal maps like we all had to learn growing up. Every kid should be forced to learn their city like the back of their hand and basic directional awareness. Stuff like the sun setting in the West and rising in the East. Anything really that gives them a basic understanding on how to orient their surroundings for the times they will need to figure out where the hell they are.

 

Take kids outside and let them play. It amazes me how many parents are scared of that.