The Rambling Writer: Hate AI? NeoLuddites Unite!

Despite sometimes writing science fiction and maybe because of writing and reading it, my questions about proliferating technology inspire me to declare myself a NeoLuddite.

I’ve long identified as a NeoLuddite, but the recent onslaught of AI — Artificial Intelligence, for those who might be living in an internet-free ice cave in Antarctica — calls for another rallying cry. So I’m updating an earlier post here.

As an author, of course, I’m directly harmed by AI learning models using my creations without compensation. (NOTE: Here at Book View Cafe publishing, we commit to publishing books created without the use of AI.) I’ve talked to doctors alarmed at the way AI is pushing its way into patient care, including diagnoses that are often riddled with errors. And don’t get me started on the insurance industry, which (with the help of our corrupt new U.S. Administration) is rolling out big plans to use AI to require preapproval of all medical procedures, and rewarding the participating companies with a cut of savings due to denials. And what about the deluge of “personalized” emails generated by AI, shilling everything from book promotion to magic elixirs to promises to make your vacation easier by booking your trip, if only you give the AI control of your credit cards. What could go wrong?

I’m heartened by reading recently that young people are joining the NeoLuddite movement as a protest against out-of-control technology taking over our lives. Bless you, youngsters, and have at it!

The Luddites as a movement rose in the early 19th century in England as a protest against industrialization destroying traditional livelihoods and skills. Tolkien, in The Lord of the Rings novels, especially The Two Towers, seems to echo the sentiment that the tranquil, natural beauty of the British countryside had been destroyed by the pollution of the Industrial Age. Saruman (gone over to the dark side) orders his Orc minions to cut all the trees, build forges, and make weapons. From the film version: “The forests will burn in the fires of industry.” The former natural beauty is transformed to a steaming pit of mud, ashes, and smoke.

I’m certainly not the first to recoil at human destruction of the natural world, but the recent acceleration of technology adds the dimension of transforming our identities and function as humans. In short, we are so “plugged in” to digital technology that most of us can’t imagine life without our devices. And, indeed, our worldwide culture is built around it now. Most people just grab for the newest techno-gadget without thinking about the price: What does this latest gizmo offer me in exchange for what I’m giving up? Should I give up a hike in nature to plug into a recording of a trip to Hong Kong or an orbital satellite?

My first published science fiction novel, WILD CARD RUN (now in a new edition from Book View Cafe), imagined a far future when humans are controlled by AI entities called the Cybers. My character Ruth Kurtis, under threat of The Steps of Healing that would erase her memory, rebels:

   The Cybers were ordained by the sacred Founders to serve us. “And lo, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of war, the Cybers are with me and I will fear no evil.” The Book of Words couldn’t be wrong about our guardians. It couldn’t be true that we were only pawns in their game….

My agent always tells me that my writing is ahead of my time. (sigh)

Studies have shown that constant use of digital media is physically altering human brain functions. Do we know where we’re going? Do we care?

When I wrote the early drafts of my near-future thriller THE ARIADNE CONNECTION, my projection of NeuroLink technology seemed distant. Now we are moving ever closer to “plugging in” directly to programmed experiences, as my character Leeza Conreid does with direct nerve linking. She can record or experience “life” without moving. She’s addicted to the constant stimulation of Linking, and requires more and more extreme content to keep her going.

When another character recoils at the thought of a neural probe Linking him, she scoffs: Leeza rolled her eyes, coiled the leads, and stowed her gear. Typical NeoLuddite,
freeze at the sight of a neural probe.

My main character, Ariadne Demodakis, is concerned about her old friend. NOTE: ironically, my blogsite technology cut up the following excerpt into jagged bits and won’t let me fix it….

Leeza slung camera and recorder over her shoulder and hustled up the ladder,
avoiding Ariadne’s eyes.
She made a show of Linking in on deck, raising the camera, and it was good stuff,
sheets of rippling aurora lights against dark sky, cool breeze off the water, rhythmic
sway of the boat. “I’m getting some super material.” Transmission and reception were
still blocked by turbulence, but she could record to chip. “You want to Link into my files, check out a replay of that storm? It’s a rush.”
“No.” Voice emphatic.
Leeza lowered the camera. “Not you, too! Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the
NeuroLink.”
“Have you thought about what it could be doing to you? It’s addicting, Leeza.
Have you read the studies raising questions of longterm nerve and cognitive damage?
And there may be a higher incidence of RP-Hansen’s among Link users.”
“NeoLuddite buzz crushers! I’m telling you, the Link’s a mind-blower.”
“Maybe literally!” Ariadne touched her arm. “Leeza, what about taking a break
from it? And the drugs? Use this trip to slow down, see how you feel without this
constant overstimulation.”
Leeza wrenched back from the pity, that old goddamn arrogance. “Save it for your
adoring peasants, Saint A.” Jaw clamping, she jerked the camera to her eye and turned it on the shimmering auroras.

*****

Interestingly, I just read a brief news article about a young musician, Chelsea Cutler, whose Twitter post about the pressures of social media on artists went viral. Ironically, she was writing in social media about the constant need to post “content” from her life on social media, in order to stay visible in the saturated world of information. A lot of other artists rose up to echo her concerns that such immersion in “digital reality” (my term) was destroying their creative energy. As an author, I feel the same relentless pressure to produce a regular stream of social media “content” or sink into oblivion.

Are there still choices we can make?

Thank goodness I’m not the only NeoLuddite!

*****

You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s Greek islands novel  from Book View Café is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?”  The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara is at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com