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Showing posts from September, 2023

My Instructor Saw A.I. Coming

In early 2002, I took an English literature course. The instructor chose to focus on horror as a genre. For the final exam, we had to write an essay about two of the stories we had read. The theme was the dangers of overdependence on technology. I think she foresaw the rollout of ChatGPT and the A.I. boom it would unleash coming from a mile away. Below is the essay I wrote: Warning: Technology May Be Hazardous to Your Health  Authors Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison use their respective stories entitled “The Veldt” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” to address excessive reliance on advanced technology. They each show how an automated world can lead to conflict pitting man against man as well as man against machine, a theme re-examined in later motion pictures such as The Terminator and The Matrix. Both short stories essentially begin with individuals or entire communities who have become addicted to some form of technology. The subsequent withdrawal symptoms when the high tech and