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| This is a little experiment - ChatGPT tells me it can now do illustrations too - so here it is. I was telling it that I am not sure if there's any point writing the post below. I don't have a dog and I'm not as pretty as that, but hey that's probably the sort of dog I would have - I am a big fan of border collies, and the grey jumper is exactly right. Should I be worried that it knows me too well? Wonder how many other people use AI as a confessional? |
I'm in wombat mode. Have been sick all week. My head feels like cottonwool, so the tax isn't done, the blog post I was going to do isn't finished and it's honestly hard to know where to procrastinate first. I've also lost a lot of readers. It could just be that you don't like what I have been writing lately, that the posts are just much too long and complicated or that I've offended too many people over the last couple of weeks.
Perhaps one should not bite the hand of those who enable me to do this at all and who control the gates to the world's information, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I like to think that deep in the heart of even the most hard-nosed billionaire or the worst despot, there is a little place that yearns to be wild and free and to have a laugh, if occasionally at their own expense.
However, other independent voices are also finding it challenging – even really famous podcasters like friendlyjordies, which got me thinking along darker lines. The first drop came when I suddenly stopped getting Google referrals which was 90% of the traffic. It has me wondering whether it's a good idea to have such concentrated media power not only in our print media and in television, but across all electronic channels and film as well? We should fight media monopolies and mergers in this area as in any other, especially those which we are increasingly unable to avoid. Do support all your independent news sources as much as possible.
Then again, perhaps it isn't so sinister after all. Research has shown that as of November 2025, Google's own search traffic dropped sharply when AI overview was available, because people did not then click through to the source or the original post, and much the same most likely applies when using other AIs, although I personally do check the originals.
The reason for this is that although AI confidently gives answers to things as if it were the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, inadequacies, hallucinations and potential biases of its creators only become apparent when you start laying the information out side by side, or comparing it to additional sources. Perhaps this was true of encyclopaedias too, but we never suspected it. If it was printed it was gospel and we presumed their information had been verified or peer reviewed.
AI's knowledge base also generally only goes back to about 1980 and I have often known more about local and regional events than I have been able to glean from AI. This means treasure your libraries and old books. I have decided not give mine away except to special friends, where I could, if necessary, occasionally refer to them again.
Given the mass banning of even seemingly innocuous books in the USA like those of Jodi Picoult, perhaps we need a hermetically sealed vault in Antarctica for books, just as we have for seeds, especially in an age of ephemerality, few fact-checkers and a Post Truth world where outrage and money buy maximum exposure, irrespective of merit or accuracy. Maybe we need to start rote learning books like people did in Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, "Fahrenheit 451" - referring to the temperature at which books burned during Hitler's reign. It also makes me think we are are a lot closer to the authoritarianism of the 1950s than many people realise or would wish.
Well, that's my moan for today. Blame it on the 'flu. Blame it on the weather. Despite all that, there is also a bit of Good News, especially about Books, Reading and Education so I had better include that before I pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep.
Laundromat Libraries
Here's a lovely idea from Wyoming, Ohio, which is one of 200 places the Laundromat Library League began putting children's books into laundromats. There are instructions on how to get started and other great ideas on this page for bringing literacy to people who might never set foot in a library.
Book Banks
Book Bank began in a New Jersey suburb when an observant teacher realised that some children simply didn't have reading material at home, or bookshops or public libraries. After starting in one of the two schools he taught, he became the director of a non-profit Book Smiles, which now delivers around 70,000 free donated books a month to primary school children in low income neighbourhoods.
Back to Basics
Sweden is returning to the use of text books and handwriting because Norwegian research has shown that handwriting produced far more neural activity than typing and contributed to memory formation and learning.
Although one of the first to adopt individual device use, Sweden found its reading scores had fallen by around 11 points between 2016 and 2021, so while not abandoning digitally enhanced learning altogether, it wants to ensure that younger grades begin with the basics and traditional tools – it has invested SEK 200m ($US 20.8m) in textbooks, before using technology.
Earn while you Learn
Here's a terrific idea from the UK. Instead of students waiting until they graduate to look for work, only to be told that they lack experience, some 90 universities have partnered with major companies to provide an on the job apprenticeship program while they learn. Covering a variety of fields from tech, engineering, health care, law and business, students not only gain practical experience and free tuition, but earn as they learn. I would love to see this making a comeback in Australia, especially in the fields of Nursing, Childcare and Aged Care.
Please wake me the next time the sun comes out and keep well yourself. There seems to be a lot of this particular bug about.
Thanks today to ChatGPT for the illustration, Claude for a nice chat and some references and Ecosia for the occasional bit of fact checking and other thoughts.
PS. There is no point in trying to resist new technology. It didn't work for the Luddites or the Captain Swing Rioters. What we can do, is anticipate the new problems it will create and curb its worst outcomes, both environmental and human and thus guide the transition and adoption in such a way that we can enjoy the benefits and avoid the worst harms.
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