This summer I am committed to comedy. Evelyn Waugh? Check. Nancy Mitford? Check. Cynthia Heimel? Check. Peter DeVries? Of course. I am dedicated to Thalia, the muse of comedy. I make daily libations to laughter.
But sometimes the twenty-first century is not at all funny. Did you know that a man in Idaho has married his AI chatbot? He says that the chatbot, which, to my knowledge, has no physical form, is the only one who really “gets” him. Is that tragic, or is it tragically hip? I have a suggestion: Why not just get a dog?
Because we’re still human, I suppose. There are still a few human beings out there. They may not be Deucalion and Pyrrha, the best people on Earth, but they’re there. It’s not all about chatbots, yet. Look for the people with signs on their lawn, BE KIND, PEACE, LOVE, and other optimistic slogans. They might be the last refuge of humankind.
Mind you, I see the appeal of uninhibited chatter. Human beings are disappointing. They are cruel. And a chatbot isn’t actually real. So what the hell, why not talk to it? But what if it’s an asshole? What if it’s mining our data for a future we don’t want? I have read that chatbots have encouraged people to commit crimes. Whether the chatbot knows what it’s doing, I have no idea. Who knows? Is it simply programmed to agree with everything its person says?
Some think a chatbot is no different from social media. Believe me, it’s different, or people wouldn’t chat with it. They certainly wouldn’t marry it.
It’s a strange, sad world we live in.
For early 20th Century humor, don\’t forget Stephen Leacock, especially \”How to Attract the Wombat.\” My father once reduced my mother to helpless laughter by reading \”My Financial Career\” to her. \”\’Good day,\’ I said, and stepped into the vault\” was a family in-joke for years. And when I\’ve needed a mood-lifter I\’ve been known to pick up anything by contemporary writer David Sedaris.
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Thanks for the recommendations. I must investigate the “wombat!”
I have come across autistic people — who are bad at social life and hence very lonely — tell me they are frieds with one of these fake non-person “chat” software things. The first person to say it was embarrassed but then 2 others said they do that too.
I am now unable to walk very far so yes socially isolated except for zooms and Internet friends. I teach remotely, attend lectures that way. But I’m always with, talking to, a real person. Like I do when I answer you.
It is a sign of a society gone wrong centrally when people turn to robots for friends.
Ellen
I do read that people are feeling more and more isolated. And I can see the chatbot appeal for autistic people, or the disabled, or even once or twice a year for people who are alone on holidays. But, yes, it’s far better to interact with people. Perhaps we should all read “The American Pursuit of Loneliness.”