I am and forever will be ChaT CHRIS

Almost five months of zero inspiration for a story to write. The thought had crossed the mind way more than once to throw a few words or phrases at Chat GPT and see what it came up with. Could it pierce my inner thoughts in all their glorious and in-glorious wonder and write what is me?

It was decided not to go there and test, but that human trait of curiosity got the better of me. Half an hour later I was still none the wiser. Various platforms were visited that claimed to be ChatGPT. One asking to sign up, which I did with email and set password, but it refused to open any further. After fifteen minutes of on-screen prompt pressing, still no progress for registration. Another site visited which kept on redirecting to online share trading and gambling sites.

Over and over again I tried, but still the same result. What is that saying? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. This was starting to feel like that.

All this time I was thinking of the 30 minutes of life and thoughts that I would never get back from this exercise. All the while the brain had processed and thought out many words and phrases, most of which could not be written because of their expletive nature. An exercise in futility it was. I am still none the wiser as far as ChatGPT being able to make writing sense of my inner thoughts.

Why even bother? I won’t anymore. Am 65 years old now and maybe it’s the generational Dinosaur in me that prevents penetration into the world of AI. On the other hand, I have been in and around computing and word processing since the mid 1980’s. My first work station was in 1992 from which many specifications, contract documents, reports and spreadsheets were written.

The keyboard is normal and an integral part of my existence so much so that if I try to write in longhand it is now extremely stilted and slow. Thoughts flow easily along the brain synapses to the finger tips that belt their way across the keyboard. Guess some habits of really needing to belt the keys on the old typewriter as a kid never left me.

Thinking of my thoughts and the free abandon in which they work led to contemplation of their origins. This freedom goes back to childhood and teenage days and nights at home. Cannot think of any subject that was ever taboo around the dinner table or other times. Never had the lecturing or strictly one way conversations from the parents unless I was in the ‘naughty corner’. They encouraged our inner thoughts out to the light without fear of repercussion.

You name it, and was discussed – God, the Universe and everything so to speak. Politics, mainly of the left leaning, sport and even discussion in later teenage years about sexuality as the Sister had a few close gay friends who were regular visitors. Rainbow flag wasn’t waved in those days being still relatively taboo. My parents though initially shocked at these friendships, accepted them as humans first and foremost and extremely nice ones they were.

I digress a bit, but the foundation for a future adult life of open mind was laid during those years. Undergrad Uni was a bit different (to say the least) from traditional Uni curriculum. Students were tasked with setting our own learning goals for the semester and then assessing at the end of it whether we had achieved these goals. Coming from traditional schooling system this concept was scary to say the least. Yes, lecturers were there for mentoring, but it was a gentle and subtle steering wheel they provided.

Could I do it in this brave new World of 100% self- responsibility of goal setting and actions? I did. Slowly but surely the mind tuned itself away from the rote based learning of traditional school and started to critically explore this alternative of no barriers open learning and personal development. No idea was too crazy to put on the table. Lecturers encouraged mind exploration of ideas even if they knew a dead end was waiting.

That was part of the learning in backtracking from a dead end thought process, insert a new angle of thought and head off again on a tangent never felt before. Sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t, but the human mind has plenty of capacity for failure and success. The success may end up being truly unique. The feeling when finding unique solutions were the best feelings ever. Big wow and happiness endorphins going off inside the grey matter made the dead ends and tangents all worthwhile.

Thinking in an intuitive manner became the norm rather than the exception. Post grad Uni refined and polished the mind to one of freedom, never to be persuaded by just one opinion, but to explore many opinions while developing a sense of skepticism that helps in the eternal quest to sort fact from fiction.

Just an aside for human induced Global Warming leading to crazy Climate issues. It is true. My open and skeptic mind spent many years wrestling with this to become firmly convinced about 20 years ago. Do not believe the naysayers or deniers as their minds are closed to critical scrutiny.

The mind of our brain is truly unique. Three seconds of thought can turn into a three minute read. Just think about that for a moment. This time is far less than the time it takes to write prompts for a ChatGPT article. Astonishing really, yet the AI programs are becoming the way of now and into the future. Yet my mind uses the power of not even a light globe to really power up. The power consumption on computing systems that drive AI? I don’t need to answer that.

The Brain has had a workout thinking and writing this. Exercise is needed to keep it healthy. What would continued usage of ChatGPT give us? A brain and mind of mud perhaps. We may only have the ability to think in one to three word prompts. How to critically evaluate what the Chat Bot has written if we become so dependent on it’s brain power?

What will happen to intuitive thought? What will happen to human creativity? Will we lose the understanding of what opposable thumbs are for? Just joking! What else will we lose the understanding of? Rhythm of language and our understanding of great prose?

Will Best seller lists become dominated by – Chatbot Eddie C at number 1 this week for the 10th week with his probing insight into the mud of the human mind in the aptly titled book – “Are Humans really Droids?”

Meanwhile, this Dinosaur will keep on punching the keyboards of his still mainly untapped eclectic imagination of the mind whether it makes sense or not. As the Mandalorian (see Star Wars) says – “This is the Way”.