The need for real things

The following is a guest editorial written by a student of Clatskanie Middle High School. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of The Wahkiakum County Eagle.

AI (Artificial intelligence)isn't real. We may have songs that top the charts made by AI. We may have essays written by AI. We are starting to get photos that don't look like they are made from AI. We have chatbots, either for romantic reasons, to make friends, for therapy, or to cheat.

AI is quite literally taking over the world. Every time you search on Google, you get an AI response. Schools are incorporating AI for various reasons. We are seeing movies, artists, and painters that are made by AI. It isn't that AI will rule the world, but that we will become AI.

Anyone who has seen the Disney movie “Wall-E” would recall the scene where everyone is in the spaceship and are all consumed by the technology. That is the final thing we will become. Our brain has always wanted the easy way out of things; but, if we do it the easy way, then our brain, which is a muscle, gets weaker and weaker. It stops growing. Essentially, we stop growing, expanding, and learning.

A key note that we have to consider is that thinking is more than critical. Thinking is essential just like how water is essential to our living bodies. Philosophy may not be seen as practical nowadays just like how science wasn't viewed as that important except for agriculture in the past.

However, then we had the industrial revolution, and science became a huge component in our lives. That is what philosophy is becoming. It may not seem important, nor does it seem essential. However, now that AI is consuming and absorbing us, we need philosophy. We need a moment to think, breathe, and act. In my last article, I talked about how technology is not real. It occupies space, but it leaves us isolated.

We need real things. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook; those are not real, but going out to walk is real. Deciding to start a book club or a chess club is real. We can always dream, but nothing ever becomes real without action, and AI cannot make that. We shouldn’t make AI do what we can do. We know better, we should do better.