I have a neighbor across the street who likes to hang flower baskets outside her condo in the warmer months. I enjoy them whenever I walk by with my dog Hudson (which, truth be told, is just about every day). This past summer, she had three baskets of coral-colored Impatiens for most of the summer, though for some reason they didn’t seem to flower much. Then one day, the Impatiens were gone, replaced by three baskets of the most radiant Bleeding Hearts! Stunning colors. Bustling with flowers. I could see why she tossed the non-flowering Impatiens for something more exciting.
But then something peculiar happened. As early fall arrived and the other annuals around the neighborhood began to show signs of wear, those Bleeding Hearts looked more brilliant than ever.
“Hearty flowers!” I thought to myself.
Then, as early fall turned to late fall and even the first major snowfall did nothing to phase those Bleeding Hearts, one day it hit me…
Those flowers are FAKE.
What I find most interesting about this experience is how my perception of those flowers changed once I realized they weren’t true grown-from-the-earth flowers but rather ornate pieces of plastic. Before reality set in, I was able to enjoy them – admire their stunning beauty and floral abundance – until the day I realized what they truly were. Now I merely chuckle and shake my head at their blatant inauthenticity as I walk by.
And why? Why can’t I enjoy them now as I did before?
I’ll tell you why.
Because substance matters.
What’s inside matters.
What made a thing matters.
So, in the face of A.I. as it increasingly replaces jobs, replaces humans, and, worst of all, replaces human creativity and original thought, I’d like to remind you of this: be careful in how you use machines, for as time continues, it’s the words written from the heart that will stand out shiningly among a muted sea of generic, generated words.
Yes, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but an entirely fake rose, created by a robot? It will fall flat every time.
Please note: this issue of Short & Sweet was written without the assistance of A.I. by a human being, in her own words, musing on the nature of things whilst sitting on the couch one morning with her dog by her side.
