Perhaps This is How Ordinary Germans felt during Hitler's Reign

 I don't want to see US military troops in American cities.  As an AWFUL woman writing this, I am opening myself up to intimidation and reprisals which are happening all over the United States if you dare to disagree with this presidential administration.  Of course, this President is  blatantly breaking the law over and over again.  He, and his family, make the Tea Pot dome scandals of Harding's administration look like nickel and dime fraud.  

Check and balances which the general public has relied on for over 200 years is now a joke.  The courts are packed from the Supreme Count on down through the Appellate Courts.  Mitchell McConnell, former Senate Republican leader, blocked a hearing for a Supreme Court judge for over a year as well as dragging his feet on other judicial appointments. The Justice Department has been systematically stripped of lawyers who were assigned to any investigation into the shenanigans of the current administration.  If you do dissent, expect to be the target of lawsuits aimed at punishing and intimidating opposing views.  

Now, we are expected to not believe our own eyes.  I've looked at as many videos as I can find about the claim Good (the woman in Minnesota who was killed while unarmed) hit an ICE agent with her car.  Didn't happen.  The ICE agent's response was way, way out of proportion to the situation.  This is just another example of intimidation now directed toward not just dissenters but specifically female dissenters.  If that isn't bad enough, news outlets owned by Trump sympathizers, are putting out stories about supposed 'internal bleeding' of the ICE agent.  Blatantly false.  Look for yourself.  

When you have a chief executive convicted of sexual assault in a department store dressing room (how tacky), as well using disgusting insults against women whenever it suits him; a strong case can be made this administration is misogynistic.  Now, a woman has been killed who dared to protest against the administration's immigration policies.  Those same policies are becoming more and more unsavory to more and more Americans.  The National Guard has been called out over and over in Democrat led states without their presence being requested.  Once again, it's taken judicial rulings to force removal of the soldiers in those states.  And, how do you like the ICE agents in their masks?  I don't.  Not one bit.  

Congressionally approved funding has been frozen.  For example, it took another lawsuit to unfreeze funds directed for programs, including food, for POOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.   Now, there are illegal military orders to bomb boats in international waters, and to depose a foreign President.  International intimidation is being used to steamroll over Denmark and other European countries who oppose the idea of the US taking over Greenland.  Was Congress consulted in any of these illegal activities?  Nope.  Contrary to this President's belief, US Presidents are not supposed to have unlimited power.    

This President has already led an insurrection trying to block national election results.   He has pardoned drug dealers; people convicted of fraud; and the true domestic terrorists who participated in the January 6th insurrection.   He has personally enriched himself and his family to a shocking extent according to a US congressional committee report:  New Report Exposes the Trump Family’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Crypto Empire, Fueled by Self-Dealing and Corrupt Foreign Interests | U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democrats.  

I've always considered myself a good citizen, but I'm just ordinary with no 'power'.  I keep up trying to ascertain the truth about issues from multiple sources.  I vote in all elections.   I understand the Constitution and how government is supposed to work.  I have a major in American history, so I know my country's history.  Never have I seen democracy so continually, and systematically challenged - and I lived through the Watergate era.  The current executive branch's intimidation methods and unlawful extension of power is frightening, alarming and is the path toward fascism.    

New York Holiday

 Spending Christmas with a family you love and treasure is a wonderful experience.  You've surmised we had a lovely 2025 Christmas complete with a Hyper Marble Track and a Pirate Playhouse.  Santa was a big hit this year with the 7 yr old and the 3 yr old.  Our daughter made a Cajun turkey dinner for Christmas day.  We ate too much, laid around, listened to the marbles go down the gigantic three foot high track, and said "Arg" a lot - the 3 yr old is entranced with pirates, and that's the clue she's a pirate when you hear that.  We played some of the new games, read some books, and were glad to collapse into the silence of our hotel room!  

New York City is always packed with people coming to enjoy the abundant holiday decorations and the specialty performances.  We went to one of the most iconic celebrations:  The 100th Anniversary of the New York City Radio Music Hall Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza.  Sorry there are no pictures, but the audience was asked not to photograph the performance.  Here's a stock photo which captures the costume of the marching soldier, a Rockette favorite.

Everybody had a great time, not only at this performance, but for the entire holiday thanks to all the pre-planning by our daughter.  

I was also very excited to find three excellent exhibitions at my three favorite museums.  First, the Metropolitan has a great exhibition called "Divine Egypt" which was less about mummies and more about the Egyptian gods and their interrelationships.  I walked away with a much better understanding of the ancient Egyptian gods, and the realization the organization of the mythic Greek gods are actually modeled on the Egyptian gods.  As a double bonus, we also saw a Sargent exhibition as well as my favorite Christmas tree in all of New York City.

The Christmas Tree, & Jan, age 75

The base of the tree is decorated with 
antique creches

The tree decorations are
19th century porcelain angels

The Egypt exhibition was full of descriptions of of the individual gods and their relationships.  Of course, there were beautiful examples.  This chart is a genealogy of the Egyptian gods.  If you read the small print, you can see the same type of themes which flow through all the religions of the world.  (Creator - of air, water, earth, sky)

The major Egyptian gods represented by their animal heads on human bodies descend from the four gods at the bottom of the chart.

Hathor

Horus (left) - son of Isis

Neit

Serpent god

Feline God

Isis with the infant Horus

As always, there are more photos of the Egyptian exhibition.  You can click on the link to see them:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Ms2H2QuA21jJDz66

As an added bonus, the MET has acquired several additional paintings from the John Sargent family.  Once again, a very talented artist has languished in obscurity because of gender.  John Sargent, a widely acclaimed portrait painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had a very unusual upbringing.  John and Emily (his sister) were both born in Florence, Italy, and traveled Europe with their expatriate parents studying art and learning how to create art.  John burst onto the art scene in Europe as a very young man while his sister, Emily, equally talented in creating watercolors, was relegated to the background and her artistic endeavors never surfaced during her lifetime.  Instead, she promoted John's work.  Neither ever married, and they have a much younger sister, Violet.  John died in 1925; Emily in 1936; and Violet in 1952.  The MET has acquired additional paintings by both John and Emily.  Here are two examples:

Watercolor, Emily Sargent

Oil Painting, John Sargent {Violet in the hat, Emily painting, mother in background}

There are more of these paintings at the end of the previous link. 

Let's move onto another famous NYC Museum - the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  The MOMA used to be difficult to see.  They own legions of famous paintings and sculptures which used to be scattered all over the place.  When they remodeled a few years ago, they reassembled their permanent collection into four floors of art sorted by date.  There are easily accessed by escalators as well as elevators and stairs.  This freed up two floors for the 'exhibitions' which come and leave.

I was so excited to see a Ruth Asawa exhibition - a large retrospective of her work.  I first saw her art in North Carolina.  She mainly works in 'wire'.  She's a Japanese/American woman who was interred as a child in a camp in Arkansas.  She learned to draw while being held prisoner during her late childhood and teens.  When the Japanese were released, they faced extreme prejudice from their fellow Americans.  (Reminds you of how we treat Muslim/Americans, doesn't it?)  She was rejected from all the Fine Arts schools she applied to because she was Japanese. 

 A small college outside of Ashville, North Caroline - the Black Mountain College accepted her, and boy, what a jackpot for them.  She went on to become very famous in the art world.  In addition to her individual work in wire, paint and lithographs, she has done major outdoor fountains and monuments in California.  Here are examples of her work:

These are made out of wire

Here's a closer look

When she accepted commissions to do large projects which used casting in bronze, she experimented with dipping her wire sculptures in wax and then casting them.  Here's an example:

One of her famous fountains is the Mermaids and Babies Fountain in Ghirardelli Square.

Sorry about the picture quality - this is actually a film about the fountain

 

Here's a little better picture: 

She did this work in the late 1960's.  She also created a wall of memory for the Japanese from California who were interred.  

I find her work interesting, identifiable, and if you don't know her work, I'm pleased to introduce you to it.

The second artist I was excited to see at the MOMA is a Cuban artist, Wilfred Lam, who worked from the 1920's to the 1970's.  He's considered one of the great Cuban artists.  I think his work reflects the time he lived.  This picture is considered his most famous.

"The Jungle" by Wilfred Lam

I took pictures, pictures, pictures of Ruth Asawa, Wilfred Lam as well as some famous pictures which I snapped as we walked past them.  

Here's the link:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/vVXDmNArdAh8A8tZA

If you haven't had enough art, pull up your socks, and let's do one more:  The Brooklyn Museum of Art has a wonderful exhibition called 'Monet in Venice'.  Monet and his wife traveled to Venice at the beginning of the 20th century, and he painted over thirty pictures while he was there.  The exhibition has not only a big number of these pictures, but also a Givenchy bridge picture - in Spring, and his work is contrasted with Canaletto one of the first artists to master perspective.  Venice was also one of his favorite places to paint.  There is also a fabulous Thomas Moran picture of Venice with an awesome treatment of the light.   There's even a John Sargent picture.  Here's a little sample of this exhibition:

Monet - Canal scene

Canaletto - St. Mark's from the canal 

Monet - Givenchy Bridge in Spring
 

Thomas Moran - Venice

If you want to see the Brooklyn Museum pictures, click on the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/J4fxUnPgzjVG3wLP8

And, yes, everything hurt after spending hours walking around and looking at pictures and sculptures, but I didn't care.  It was exciting to be able to see so many new pieces, and to learn so much about Ruth Asawa.  The train up and back from Virginia to New York is definitely the way to travel over a major holiday.  Happy New Year!

 

Holiday Time & the Christmas Carol Quiz - It's Almost a Tradition

It's time for the almost annual Christmas Carol Quiz.  Everybody can play before/after Christmas dinner or on Christmas Eve.  You can snap a picture of the questions and send them around the room on messenger, whatsapp, or even email if you don't have a printer to make copies.  We always have a lot of fun with this, and I hope your family does too.

This year I'm struggling to get everything 'done' for the holidays, and I won't even be cooking!  I don't know why.  Well, actually, I do.  Inside my head I'm still 40 or even 50, and I underestimate how much time EVERYTHING will take me to do when my outer body is 75. 

Here's one of my 'little projects' - a Christmas outfit for my three year old granddaughter.  The requested 'bear' purse took me as long as the skirt to make. 

\

I hope everyone has a holiday filled with excitement, love, leisure, food, sports, games, books, and time to reflect and to recognize your blessings.  Merry Christmas.  I'm hoping for Mercy and Peace for the New Year.  So, here it is, the quiz:

Christmas Carol Quiz

Thoughts on Traveling

 I've been thinking about all the things I've done and places I've seen.  At the age of 18 my world was miniscule.  My picture was right next to the word 'naive'.  I had been to New York City, and it had terrified me.  I felt like the ugly duckling in a swan pond. I saw Washington D.C. on that same trip.  It made the pictures I'd seen all my short life real.  The  following year I got to go to the Montreal World's Fair.  That was it.  The sum total of my travel experience.  All the places I didn't go in those three cities makes my adult self weep, but my teen self didn't even know they existed.  

All that traveling was spent in a crowd of 40 teenagers from my local church.  We took a tour bus from Oklahoma; sleeping (not really) overnight on the buses.  Our accommodations in the three cities was modest with shared rooms.  No matter, I considered myself extremely fortunate to have gone to those places since I already knew Tulsa, Oklahoma was a small pond.

Those trips were the result of a woman who possessed a driving force to broaden our horizons beyond Oklahoma.  Can you imagine arranging this trip without the benefit of the internet or cell phones?  She managed to get everything set up while she was working full time.   Of course, as a self-absorbed teenager, I took all of this for granted.  It never occurred to me how much effort was involved in the logistics of these trips.  And, the cost had to be minimized, since none of us were much beyond lower middle class.

The one thing these trips accomplished was to whet my appetite for new places and the experiences you can have when you travel.  Another thing that has crept into my consciousness is how much smaller the world is now than it was in 1968.  Traveling to the other side of the world was mind boggling to me at age 18.  I couldn't imagine even going to all the places I wanted to see in the United States much less overseas.  I thought about going to the East coast for college, but not only did I not have the drive to get there, there was no possible financing. 

My father's attitude was there was nothing worth seeing outside of the United States.  I was selected as a foreign exchange student from my high school, and he refused to even consider me going out of the country.  I'm sure his perceptions were shaped by WWII.  He was stationed in England, and his job was running bombing raids over Germany.  He'd never been outside of Oklahoma.  He was very young, and he found himself in a country which both needed and resented him.  My mother wanted a bigger world for me as long as the tether to Tulsa, Oklahoma remained.  When Drake and I graduated from college, moving to Houston must have been a big pill for them to swallow.  

Now, we really are going to the other side of the world.  My 18 year old self would have been terrified, and I probably wouldn't have been 'game' for this even in my 20's.  We didn't hit our travel stride until we were in our 30's and by that time we had a small child.  However, like my mother, I wanted more for our daughter.  When she did her study abroad time, I was thrilled it was around the world in a semester.  

Travel makes you question who you are in relation to other people, other cultures, and just every 'other' you can think of.  Seeing the manmade wonders of the world up close helps you appreciate not just what they look like, but why they exist.  Seeing natural wonders bring out a sense of awe that permeates your entire body.  I'm eager to see both the manmade and the natural wonders of 'down under'; Southeast Asia and the Far East.  Now, if I can just survive the flights.....   

 

        

National Museum of Women in the Arts - Special Exhibition

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Rotunda

There are so many places to go see in this area.  When I read about a special exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, I knew I had to see it.  It's called "Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam - 1600 to 1750".  This is the 'Baroque' period of art, ushered in by Caravaggio, characterized by painting real people in a realistic manner.  This is the time of Rembrandt and is also a period during which landscape, still life, and portraiture began to gain popularity since Roman Catholic church art commissions were no longer available to artists in Protestant dominated countries.  

There were many women artists trained during this period by wealthy families whose family business was art, and the work of the women was favorably received by the patrons during their lifetimes.  As the lives of Western women became more constricted by custom, class, and mores during the 19th century, many earlier works by women were simply not included and sometimes their works were even attributed to men during the rise of western art museums.  It wasn't until the 1970's when women began to study and actually look for art created by women which had been lost, accessioned (culled from museum collections)  or misattributed.

Women did quite a few self portraits in this era.  One of the most famous women during this period was Judith Leyster.  Here's two self portraits painted 10 years apart

Judith Leyster - painted in 1630

Judith Leyster, 1640

In both portraits, she is holding the tools of her trade.  During the 19th century, in at least one instance, a Leyster painting was 'culled' from a museum collection.  Here's an example of her work.  

"The Concert" - 1633

In every period, only wealthy women had access to training and the TIME to devote to their art.  I had to laugh when I noticed a beautiful portrait of a woman.  It turns out this is a Princess in exile.  She had lots of time on her hands, so she hired tutors to teach her how to paint.  She painted a copy of a portrait of herself.  The original portrait is by one of her teachers.  Copying the 'master' or instructor was a common teaching technique.

This 'copy' is in one museum, and the original portrait in another.

Another point made in the exhibition was the amount of art produced by nameless women using techniques which were considered 'craft' instead of 'art' during this time period.  The design and hand creation of lace is a perfect example of an art labeled as craft.

Another craft which I'd never even heard of is called cut paper.  Apparently, women created cut paper some of which was fashioned into 'flying' ornaments.  Someone in the picture is holding one such ornament.  Art historians have speculated that the older woman is the creator.

"Watching a Papercut Wind Toy" circa 1697

Because these were so fragile, there are only a few in existence today.  Here is a fragment of one which features a Star of David.

This is part of a larger piece.  No idea how it was made.

During this period, painters from this region began selling 'still life' paintings to patrons.  Here are some examples of my favorite still life paintings:

            Clara Peters - 1650

Maria Tassaert - Still Life with Garland of Fruit

Rachael Ruysch - Vase of Flowers

Ruysch is the most famous of the 'flower' painters.  She had the fortune of having a botanist father.  Speculation is that Ruysch had the advantage of being able to use preserved specimens from her father's collection of flowers and plants.  Here's a close up of the above painting, and you can see the exquisite detail Ruysch was able to produce in her paintings.  Flower still life paintings have never gone out of style.  They can be found in each succeeding century.  

Prior to the advent of photography, painters were contracted to illustrate books of natural history.  Thus, many botany, butterfly, and insect books were illustrated by painters.  Women painters were contracted for many of these projects.  One of the most famous was  Cornelia de Rijck who was renown for her paintings/water colors of insects.  [Aside:  One of the souvenirs I bought in Europe in 1980 was a page out of a botany book which is an original watercolor illustration of a flowering plant.]   

This is not a 'pinned' insect; this is a de Rijck painting

This was a wonderful museum.  This exhibition was first rate.  There were many other great paintings and sculptures in the rest of this museum.  Here are a few which I really liked.

Bennington Birches

Patricia Tobacco Forester

Honor Freeman - Tupperware, transforming a Chaotic Kitchen
(This is made out of porcelain.)

As always, I took a zillion pictures.  Please enjoy them.  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/S745QULHfEKSxFbw9

Here Today; Gone Tomorrow

 If you roll my blog back fifteen years, you'll find one where I confided age 60 was making me acknowledge my mortality.  My premise was you can't pretend you're middle aged anymore when you are hitting 60.  I won't rehash that blog, but I was shocked at how I seemed to hit a nerve with my readers.  Lots of comments. 

Roll forward fifteen years, and suddenly, I'm 75.  Well......  I feel lucky to still be alive since I know several friends who just aren't.  At the same time, 60 looks pretty darn good considering the amount my body had deteriorated in the past 15 years.  Here's what I'm talking about:  I'll catalog from best to worst.

1)  Gray hair - I wish I had my Gram's white cotton hair, but no, I have my Cherokee grandmother's iron gray hair, but only framing my face.  My hair looks 40 from the back since it's still dark brown back there.  I really only started getting gray hair at all in the last ten years.  I have one large lock of pure white hair right above my left eye, and I color that swatch with various colors (using hair crayons) to match my outfits.   That's called making lemonade out of lemons.   

2)  Wrinkles - I can brag about these.  They are tiny and can still be camouflaged with judicious makeup.  I've actually had strangers walk up to me and compliment my complexion.  When I say, I'm ____, they always ask, "Where are your wrinkles?"  Depending on my mood, I give my Edwardian grandmother credit for selling me on the idea of covering up when out in the sun, or I make some zany comment and point them all out.  

I started taking my Gram's advice to heart when I was 14 - long prior to being able to buy sunscreen.  I wore long sleeved gauze blouses and long pants together with gigantic hats especially to the beach or pool - including a huge sun hat I got from an Astro's promotional giveaway - which I'm ashamed to admit - I still have.  If I hadn't smoked cigarettes forever, my wrinkles would be even smaller and fewer.  Truthfully, wrinkles or no wrinkles are often dependent on your genes, but lack of sun exposure tops any genetic help.

3)  Incontinence - I'll live with this since I got the prize.  The prize's name is Sarah Lynn.  She jumped up and down on my bladder, destroyed the lining, made me susceptible to UTI's, and incontinence when I laugh too hard, cough, sneeze, run, or jump up and down.  I finished the only 5K run/walk I've ever tried when I was 38 with a big, embarrassing wet spot on the front and back of my pants.  I just pretended it was sweat, and nobody even said anything.  That experience taught me you can just brazen this situation out and dare anybody to be brave enough to make a comment.

4)  Dots, spots, and marks:  While I may not have a bunch of wrinkles, I do have red dots, brown spots, and new freckles.  I actually look like a dot to dot worksheet.  You know, connect the numbered dots, and you have the outline of a picture to color.  If my dots and spots were numbered, I'd have the outline of a witch, or truthfully, of a bitch.  I can't change these, and I'm looking at a red spot that just popped up today.  Sigh..... just part of the fun stuff of your body aging  

5)  Brain slow down - This is the first serious one.  About five years ago, I discovered I'd lost the ability to spell.  Up until this point, I could scribble down a word and tell if it was spelled correctly or not (visual learner, here).  Now, I find I sometimes can't even figure out how to spell a multisyllable word once I get past the first syllable.  I'm so grateful for spell check since I can phonic it, and the smart guy inside the computer can figure out what I'm trying to say.   I always felt lucky that spelling was easy for me.  Now I understand how the folks who've never been able to spell feel. 

Brain slow down #2:  There are the vanished words.  This is worse than the sudden loss of spelling ability.  Here's an example from this blog:  See the word 'brazen' in the #3 item above?  I couldn't think of the word as I was writing the sentence.  I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but my brain couldn't find the word inside my interior dictionary.  I just want to scream when this happens.  The frustration level is sky high.  To find the word 'brazen', I finally looked up synonyms for "lack of embarrassment" and it popped up.  Internally, it dropped into place the second I saw the word.  This also happens when I'm talking.  If I'm with other people, I sometimes practice inside my head what I want to say before saying it to avoid being left high and dry while grasping for a word that won't come.  My grandson told me recently that I knew every word there is.  I just accepted the compliment, while my interior monolog was saying, "Not anymore."

6)  (Now, we're getting into the SERIOUS stuff.)  Pain.  There's no way to sugarcoat this.  My family's Achille's heel is osteoarthritis.  I'm so grateful it's not rheumatoid, but there's also no magic medication for the pain of osteoarthritis.  On any given day, I have pain in my toes (when I can feel them), my knees, my hips, up and down my back, both shoulders, and my hands.  I wake up in pain; I go to bed in pain.  I've learned that as I've gotten older, it's all gotten worse.  I've also learned that no one wants to hear about it.  Occasionally, in private, I weep from the constancy.  In public, I try to pretend it doesn't exist.  I know all the tricks to hold the pain at a level I can live with.  At age 40 I couldn't imagine this pain; at 60 I saw it on the horizon.  Now, at 75, it's just a way of life.  Bah, humbug.  Don't pity me.  I can name several friends who have it much, much, much worse than I do.  Actually, if you took away the osteoarthritis, I would be in great shape, and I have the medical tests to prove it.  Still, let's talk about the elephant in the room.

Mortality.  At age 75, I'm not just older, I'm elderly.  It's all downhill from here.  At age 60 I had just crested the hill; at 75 I'm picking up speed rolling down the proverbial hill at an alarming rate.  Thus, I have been contemplating my death.  I always like to be prepared.  Death comes to all of us.  No one gets out of this life alive.  Not saying the word, or not thinking about it won't hold it off.  And, you can't take anything with you when you go.  One of my favorite plays was written by George Kaufman/Moss Hart premiering on Broadway in 1936 '.  It's called, "You Can't Take it With You".  It's all about the idea that wealth and things really won't make you happy.  Happiness comes from engagement with other people and from experiences.  

I've never been a material goods person.  My idea of decorating through most of my adult life was to put up another bookcase.  My clothes have always been home made, bought on clearance, in garage sales, or thrift stores.  I prefer experiences to stuff.  Downsizing from a four bedroom house to a 10'x20' storage unit really brought home to me how little all the 'stuff' we drag around with us really matters.  We've downsized twice, and it's time to contemplate what stuff we are dragging around that we don't need.

What is painful is watching my friends facing THEIR mortality, and some of them cashing in their tickets.  Dying is the easy part.  Being left behind to deal with the loss and grief is what is really difficult.  Of course, some deaths easier than others.  At this point, I just wish easy deaths for elderly people I know, and if I had my druthers, I'll take one of those for myself.  

I don't think I'm afraid to die.  However, it might like being pregnant - you never know how you'll really feel until you're facing it.  I do believe there's more than the worms after you kick it.  Maybe that's wishful thinking, but I'm up for another adventure.  Even worshiping science and technology like we do today hasn't changed my mind a bit.  I think there's something 'more' after this earthly plain.  I'm also sure it can't be described and catalogued. 

One thing that does keep happening to me is the realization my every experience may be for the last time.  Maybe it's seeing the ocean.  Maybe it's a favorite dish I don't eat very often.  Maybe it's an intensely personal experience.  Maybe this next trip will be the last one.  With that in mind, I'm trying to be more in the moment.  If you talk to really elderly people, they live in the day, in their current experience.  They don't worry about either the past or the future.  Just think, it only takes being ancient to understand how to be mindful and in the moment.  So, that's my goal.  Trying to enjoy what life I have left.

Reality:  Here today; gone tomorrow.  Looking back with regrets is just stupid.  You can't change it.  Why dwell on it?  I've found as I've aged into elderly it's easy to be depressed about missing friends, the state of the world, or what has been lost.  It's much harder to look for the silver and gold happening all around and seizing it.  So, look around when you put this essay down and focus on something you can see which makes you happy or brings up a treasured memory.  Life is short.  Eat the cake.        

   

AI and AGI

 I am so tired of screens.  I am so tired of the constant barrage of new technology.  I am so tired of interacting with machines which are more tedious to deal with than the dumbest human.  

Just unplug, turn off, refuse to play.  That's certainly the kneejerk reaction.  That could be done ten years ago, but now?  Probably not possible.  One needs an electron sword to cut through the voice activated code to simply make an appointment, talk to your bank, your subscription holders, or any government agency.  Want a phone number to talk to a human?   That's possible only when dealing with the smallest and most local of companies.  

Our new electronic tool, Artificial Intelligence, [knicknamed "AI"] while currently in its infancy, is beginning to shape what information we can find on queries to the all powerful computers we carry around, and hold on our laps.  Enter a question in your Chrome search bar, and you are instantly spun off to AI Gemini (AKA 'deepmind") which is Google/Chrome's AI tool.  Googling is becoming an archaic term.

You can recognize this new tool by the Google colors in a diamond shape.  Gemini is being marketed as your personal AI assistant.  If it useful?  Yes.  Very.  However, you have to retrain your thinking and become more sophisticated in thinking what electronic usage can do.  The first use is probably the most dangerous.  Gemini summarizes the info about a question from multiple websites and presents the information in written form.  Here's an example:  Query - What is an archaic term in English for eating?  

Gemini (AI) answer:  Several archaic terms for eating exist, including "victual," "sup," "dine," "gormandize," and "swallow." These words were commonly used in the past but are less frequent in modern English. (Then, there's a breakdown of the meanings of each word.   

Here's what's happening with users.  The questioners look no further than the Gemini summary.  Instead of scrolling through a list of websites, they simply accept the AI summary.  Did you notice the 'mistake' in the summary.  Dine is currently used in modern English.  It's basic definition is 'to eat'.  AI is not infallible.  Remember, this tool is just starting to be explored in real time by real people.  Who're going to be the explorers?  The answer will not surprise you:  PRETEENS and TEENS.  

If my assumption is true, then public school systems will have to radically change.  From my own personal experience, I can tell you radical change doesn't happen in those systems.  There's a prevailing fear of technology especially as regards to reading/writing/fact gathering.  Teachers are beginning to get the inkling they can be replaced in the future by AGI. 

What's AGI?   Artificial Generative Intelligence - that's the machine intelligence which can LEARN based on its accumulated data.  Are AGI's going to take over the world and make humans redundant?  Yes, but only in certain situations.  However, not in the sci-fi, fantasy way you think.  

Here are some ideas on what AI and increasingly AGI will be used for.  Teachers being trained learn "Bloom's Taxonomy" - think of that as levels of thinking, and lessons are supposed to take this taxonomy into account.  Here's what Bloom's looks like today without taking into consideration AI or AGI.

The three bottom categories are characterized as lower level thinking - especially the bottom two.  Now, think about 'remember' (these are facts).  Think about 'understand' (put facts into context).  What does AI do?  Regurgitate facts and summarize context.  How is most school taught?  Visually which relies on memorization and context.   Can you see the problem?  In shorthand, if you can look it up, you don't need to memorize it. 

Most school systems are still teaching memorization and context through high school!  No wonder older kids are bored witless especially in classes they don't see the need for or which don't expand their evaluation, judgment or creativity skills.  Are teachers embracing AI/AGI?  Absolutely not.  They consider these tools as advanced cheating skills instead of advancing technology user skills.  

Now, think about everyone who enters data into a system.  Within a short amount of time, this job in its many facets will be taken over by AI/AGI.  Think data entry clerks, beginning coders, manufacturing (robots), some lawyers, some stock market analysts, fast food workers, etc.  If you punch it into a keyboard or cash register, AI/AGI has its sights on those jobs.  Goldman/Sacs thinks about 9% of jobs done by humans will be replaced within the next 20-25 years.  And, this list includes teachers who refuse to adapt.  

I've been saying for years that we are in the midst of an Electronic Revolution.  It's counterpart in the past was the Industrial Revolution.  The Industrial Revolution changed where we lived, what we lived in, what we wore, how and what we ate, where we traveled, and what tools we used during our lifetimes.  The IR began about 1760 and ended about 1914. That's over a period of about 150 years.  

Now, compare it to the Electronic Revolution.  Most historians suggest the true beginning was the invention of the microprocessor in 1971.  Now, 55 years later, look where we are.  And, if you consider the revolutionary tool the iphone, it was invented less than 25 years ago (2007 - iphone 1).  [Aside:  notice that iphone is not capitalized. Capitalization  rules are being changed every time we text.] 

Notice the difference in the rate of change - The Electronic Revolution is progressing three times faster than the Industrial Revolution.  The old saying, "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube" pretty much says it all.   If you think you can be a luddite (a person against new or modern technologies), think again.  Just because you're old, or you haven't bothered to try to 'keep up' even on the most superficial level won't do anything except isolate you from the main stream of society in developed countries.  People who insist on trying to turn back the clock just wind up with a broken clock. 

Welcome to the Electronic Age coupled with the Nouveau Gilded Age.  I'm explore that historical concept in my next blog entry.

P.S.  This blog was written utilizing AI technology.  

PPS. Age is not an excuse anymore to tune out, turn on, and drop out.