Well, why don't you go drown yourself right now in the river?
I wanted to respond.
Instead, I said something along the lines of humans needing time to process ideas and that just seeing words on the screen does little to generate actual knowledge.
Needless to say, I'm not seeing that person again.
I'm just sooo over hearing this.
More of the people telling me: oh you'll be replaced by an AI agent.
Oh, you're a writer? Good luck hun. Everyone just uses genAI now.
You're telling me to read a whole book? Or even a blog? Are you crazy? Who has time for that? Just give me a TL;DR.
I mean, yeah, sure, says the person with a 10-hour phone screen time a day. I mean, who has time for that?!
Do you ever see other people not through the lens of a smartphone camera or halfway distracted, or how does that work?
...
Anyway, back to the AI summary talk.
Long before everyone rebranded bots to agents and made videos about how creative pursuits could be automated with genAI to make you a millionaire selling mugs on Etsy...
There was a time that a startup came up with Blinkist. It was humans making the summaries of books.
I tried it.
I never got a hang of it.
It's nice to revisit ideas, I assume.
But isn't it also nice to just pull the book out of your shelf, or to have to make an effort scraping your own memory for traces of the concepts?
If you're anything like me, you'll find it deeply satisfying when you can remember exactly which book to go to for a certain idea.
I reckon they won't be doing that well now that everyone can make their custom summaries anyway.
...
I also recall a tweet about some tool that would break down classics into super simple language.
Look, if you do that for accesibility sake, sure. A simpler version of Midsummernight dream for kids? Love it.
This one didn't quite seem like that though considering how much was lost in the process.
Let me make some summaries up:
Guy climbs on mountain, stays there for a while, comes down a changed man.
Angry snobby white man takes a bunch of drugs and gets high.
One woman decides to not have babies, her friend however gives birth to one.
The first one you wouldn't even know if we're talking Zarathustra or Buddha.
To me often what the people who have this "oh just read the summaries" mindset tend to also have, is a view that stuff needs to be convenient, quickly available, and ideally of some economic value or entertainment value.
They want only the information. And maybe some quotes to post in their insta stories. Maybe if you asked them whether they want to be plugged into the pleasure machine, they'd say yes.
This forgets completely that the process we go through to understand, to empathize, to reflect on the world created by the author contributes to how fulfilling literature can be.
Difficulty is not always the enemy. Having to put in effort is not a bug. It's often feature.
Reading a book isn't like watching documentaries on Netflix.
Apparently those are nowadays optimized to be second-screen anyway. Meaning, supposed to be watched by people distracted by their phone. Wtf is this.
Actually reading a whole book or even just a blog requires active participation.
If you do it as watching Netflix, you're not doing yourself any favors.
Reading forces you to focus. It requests that you accept the previous paragraphs as true before proceeding.
"Mindless, distracted reading is just like walking through a beautiful landscape blindfolded"
Herman Hesse
Considering how many people walk eyes focused on the screen through beautiful landscapes, seeking picture spots to enhance their brand value... maybe it's no wonder people don't want to actually read a whole thing.
Doesn't square with a distracted mind seeking the next shot of quick dopamine.
Or just craving convenience. Hey I love comfort too.
Not that much that I'd give up on reading some of the beautiful literature in its original versions, which will have me confused, struggling, and then... touch, move, and at times live forever in my head - mingling with my experiences, helping me make sense of the world.
...
If I was talking about music, no one would tell me to just listen to the AI summary.
As I was walking toward the drug store, my playlist decided to hit me with Brahms OP 118 Intermezzo and I started crying.
This is what undiluted art does to us at its best. It triggers something deep within.
Isn't great writing the same?
If you take out all of the prose, all of what makes the writers' voice, what are you left with?
Are you just trying to get rid of the human?
And what do you gain?
Is it really an opinion to have so proudly?
Isn't that exactly what causes writers like Ted Chaing to call genAI a fundamentally de-humanizing technology?
"...a book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us."
Kafka
Thanks for reading. 💚
I just needed a rant. It's been one too many in those days coming with this opinion and telling me how I was such an "art teacher" (in a rather judgmental way) for holding such views.
Didn't Robin Williams teach us better?
"We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion."
John Keating - The Dead Poets Society
Anyway.
Read some book, or poems, essays, short stories, plays... anything written by a real human.
Kids books are another source of insight and delight.
Mr Fox likes books is one of my absolute favorites.
And manga.
Read some of those. They're not just for kids.
They might teach you more about what happens when we put blind trust into tech to judge humans than any of those AI summaries ever can.
