In the dVerse Poets Pub today Bjorn asks us to write from a collective point of view!
Cards on the table, tell it like it is
everything we do, everything we are
gets converted into digital information.
expenditures, viewing habits, internet searches
observed by the anonymous
all of it parsed for patterns
predict what next we purchase
what next we view, where next we travel.
Algorithms used to make recommendations
are not always unbiased
reviews we read may have been AI generated
technology is going to continue
its relentless forward march
we must straddle that delicate divide
[ our convenience ~ their control ]
without compromising our precious autonomy.
Very true. It's a very fine line. Well said.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful write, Helen. I love your perspective. Nothing is private any longer and my be used against you in a court of law!
ReplyDeleteBut we are already in their grasp sadly and willingly giving away our information. It's in our phones, our homes - they know everything about us. (Says me, after buying products via my phone.) Good one Helen.
ReplyDeleteConvenience is costly in every sense of the word. Very nice poem.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, our convenience, their control. It will take great courage to let go of technology.
ReplyDeleteWe have been lulled into the fact that we are making our own choices, but like sheep we are led to a collective slaugtherhouse.
ReplyDeleteI like the voice and tone of the opening lines, Helen, an invitation to tell it like it is, but with an underlying chilling warning about ‘compromising our precious autonomy’.
ReplyDeleteWe've been told for millennia we are sheep. I think you prove the point.
ReplyDeleteA timely poem indeed. In talking with current teachers (high school and university level) one of the interesting things is how students do research now. We used to have an entire library to wade in to....the green Periodical Guides to Literature listed a bazillion magazine and journal articles on any topic you could think of and you got everything it had on the subject, from various vantage points. In fact, the Periodical Guide to Literature wasn't even aware of vantage points. Now, kids Google topics and sadly, those algorythms you mention, and companies/sources paying tech gurus to enable them getting more hits and paying to have their company/article/essay/etc show up at the top of the list of sources affects what the student gets in their research. It's a different world.
ReplyDeleteExactly Helen! The trick is 'without compromising our precious autonomy' as you so rightly state. Great writing!
ReplyDeleteYes it is an unnerving time now...Google knows all!
ReplyDeleteAn extremely perceptive and cogent argument, not to mention a great poem (love the alliteration) Helen - and something that has crept up on us whilst most people don't begin to see let alone understand the dangers...
ReplyDeleteYes absolutely! "Algorithms used to make recommendations are not always unbiased." Powerful write, Helen! ❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteNever a truer (collective) word spoken! You put it just right, Helen, "we must straddle that delicate divide/[ our convenience ~ their control ]." And to do that we can't be asleep at the wheel or it will be too late.
ReplyDeleteDearest Helen,
ReplyDeleteA BIG AMEN to the above!
Hugs,
Mariette
Helen what may be scariest is the knowledge that sooner or later the only people left alive will have no memory of a time before The Reign of The Machine.
ReplyDelete