Harry Paidas: We're married to technology, for better or worse

Throughout human history, one can point to inventions that have had significant impacts and changed lifestyles.

Early human history can point to fire and the wheel as major lifestyle changers. Moving forward, the invention of the automobile, airplane, radio and television changed lives forever.

During my lifetime, I would have to point to technology as the No. 1 game changer. Whether we love or hate technology, it is here to stay, and it is the platform on which all other advances will be made in the future.

I marvel at the fact that as a kid, when I got my first transistor radio (that did not require a plug) I thought I had died and gone to heaven. In 1968, when I watched my first baseball game on a color TV, I thought it couldn’t get any better than that.

I witnessed invention after invention make their way into improving our way of life and being welcomed with open wallets.

As far as writing, I went from a Smith Corona typewriter in high school, college and grad school to an IBM Correcting Selectric in my early workplaces (if only I would have had the Correcting Selectric while in school; I could have saved big bucks not having to buy Wite-Out).

When I came back to Mount Union to work in 1983, I was greeted by a 286 PC computer that was unbelievable in terms of what it could do. At that time, Mount had a big decision to make – should they go with PCs or follow the public schools, which favored Apple products.  At the time, it was a major decision because the two products were not compatible.

At about the same time, we discovered the wonders of fax machines, which could send printed pages of information over phone lines at four to six minutes per page! As hardware and software kept changing at a rapid pace and floppy disks gave way to hard drives, college students were concocting social media sites to better communicate with each other and keep their doting adult brethren in the dark.

Once the adults got on MySpace, along came Facebook. Just when the adults thought Facebook was pretty cool and started using it, along came Instagram and then TikTok, etc. All of these sites became known as social media, presumably to create social communication channels.

While social media channels became a way of life for younger people, we older folks caught on and started to see the benefits of social media as a way to communicate their messages to the masses. This became preferable as far as messaging since the media prided themselves as being unbiased and social media was geared to presenting point of view.

Well, you can see what has happened. Like every good invention, when it is abused or misused, it can become a nuisance. Once well intended as a social communication medium, platforms like X, Facebook and the like have been turned into weapons of disinformation and have established dark networks of terrorism and assassination, a far cry from a fraternity guy wanting to invite a bunch of women to a party.

So social media has become a blessing and a curse. Used properly, it can be an excellent way to communicate; used improperly, it can lead to misinformation, confusion and death.

As I enter the twilight of my life, the next big thing is already upon us. It is known as artificial intelligence or AI. Just as the web became synonymous with the internet, so too is AI used interchangeably with artificial intelligence. It actually took me awhile to realize since AI to me looks pretty close to a symbol for a steak sauce.

I can be a little naïve regarding advances in technology, but I didn’t realize when I got my first Garmin/GPS for the car, (a voice Kathe and I called Rita who called out directions) that this was an early form of artificial intelligence.

Since then, Siri and Alexa have entered our lives along with our three grandchildren and although I am sure the grandchildren will grow up to be bright human beings, they won’t be able to compete with Siri and Alexa when it comes to breadth of knowledge.

I will admit that I would be OK with AI if Siri and Alexa were all there was to it, but the more I read, the more I realize we are in for another battle of good vs. evil as to the use of AI.

Drones, for example, use AI technology.

Whereas I think it would be neat to have my order from Walmart delivered to my front porch via drone, piloted by AI, I don’t welcome the thought of that technology getting in the wrong hands and who knows what would be targeted.

Scientists have cited AI as continuing to make a significant positive impact on medical issues such as surgeries, cures and the like. Other prognosticators are of the opinion that the end of our planet as we know it will be the result of AI being misused by evil people.

So for now, I’ll assume that AI will be used to improve our quality of life in the future. To think otherwise would be worrisome and counterproductive.

I doubt if the inventor of the pen foresaw the day that the invention would give way to type, then electronic messaging. Trying to make a prediction about where AI goes from here is daunting. The best we can hope for is that the tools we have been handed as human beings will make lives better, not worse.

“Hey, Alexa, what’s the definition of faith?”

Harry Paidas is faculty emeritus at Mount Union and writes a monthly column for The Review. He can be reached at paidashp@mountunion.edu.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Harry Paidas: We're married to technology, for better or worse