A Case for Artificial Intelligence

 

Sweet Memories

A Case for Artificial Intelligence

We miss you … 1954-1962

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

 

            This business of judging the best of all time must have been a societal discussion forever.

            It invariably brings into focus the past because all comparisons exist solely on events that have come before. The universe of sports is a most common venue for such comparisons. Maybe it is the model to judge most comparisons, but gone are the days of conditional innocence. Box scores and heroic performances are competing with politics and wokeness for center stage.

            It is safe to say that a whole generation is on the edge of disgust of what professional sports has become. Many in that group have largely stopped watching.

            Country and western music is no different. Five two steps, at least one swing, two waltzes, and a ballad in succession made the whole thing popular and few seem to realize that. Light shows, twits, C’rap, and too few waltzes are chasing us from its active listening audience.

            Maybe the masses don’t care, but out in the fringe country, in the rural enclaves, good music like local sports is heralded. When and where it appears it remains a beacon. Texas dancehall music is proof of that. When Ian Tyson started selling out dances at Elko a year in advance, something also was afoot. So was the interesting draw of a Western swing band, the Time Jumpers. Formed in 1998 by a group of Nashville studio musicians who gathered after the shows they play honest to goodness western music. Ray Price’s last albums, too, proved that good country music remained important to the genre.

            It was with that continuing backdrop that Sweet Memories (the Music of Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys), the newest Vince Gill and Paul Franklin compilation was so welcome. Playing music that you can dance to is the heart of country music. Playing those old songs will make a believer out of the uninformed, and they will bring those who love them to their feet and fill the dance floor.

            The past can be brought to life, and … that is a good thing.

            A Case for Artificial Intelligence

            The individual is the cornerstone of the idea of the greatest of all time.

            Choose any successful endeavor and it started with the work of an individual. The heretofore mention of politics and wokeness must be in irregular juxtaposition to any comparison of success. It would seem that an individual cannot prevail in either hence genius is absent.

            The arrival of this idea of artificial intelligence (AI), however, poses a completely undiscovered set of circumstances. Most of us have only started learning about it. We hear the various pros and cons, but a Dutch study from the Jeroen Bosch Hospital has an eye-opening outcome. It pitted two versions of an AI bot against doctors’ assessment of patients in an emergency room. In 87% of the cases, doctors had the correct diagnosis compared to a similar 87% outcome from one version of the AI. The other version, however, outperformed both with an amazing 97% correct diagnoses.

            In the chaos of an emergency room, maybe an AI diagnostic system has great potential, but that only begs another question. Can AI be called upon to perform similar tasks elsewhere?

            In his participation in the creation of the Constitution, Ben Franklin had some very insightful views of what American government would become. For one thing, he was not optimistic about the likelihood that any body of leaders could or would remain loyal to the premise of the American model. He didn’t trust mankind to remain inviolate in its commitment to standards of conduct and objectivity. He even suggested anarchy as the best form of government, but he knew his version of anarchy wouldn’t be understood. His suggestion became anecdotal only.

            Another largely hidden gem of his view was how the moral standing of society should be managed. He thought such an important role should come from the people. As such, the House of Representatives should become the moral voice of record.

            As we should all now know, though, it wasn’t the citizen who was tagged as the bastion of right or wrong. It was the Supreme Court, and its charge was altered to judge constitutionality of laws rather than serve as the caretaker of moral standards. Moral standards were therefore addressed implicitly rather than expressly in the participation of the citizenry.

            As our nation has learned, the Supreme Court has long demonstrated Franklin’s fear of how thoughts and actions of leaders can become corrupted. One could argue that a major contributor to our decline has come from the inability of judges to remain disciplined to judge and not to legislate. Maybe another way to describe that is the Supreme Court was never the correct body to be assigned to manage the sanctity of the Constitution in the first place.

            What if, however, the Framers could have overseen the data packaged and inputted into a permanent archive that matched their unique perspective of what was intended in the first place. A perspective of AI is that it holds inviolate the pool of data that it oversees. The outcome may well be that rather than being governed by an ever-increasing bank of case law and regulations, all laws would be judged only by originality of the Constitution.

            If it could keep human corruption out of the picture, maybe it is a grand concept.

            We miss you … 1954-1962

            Americans have lost contact with originality, and there is a desperate need to reacquire it. Families of two generations ago probably came as close to that concept as any in history.

Many of us believe the best days of American history were in the later ‘50s and into the early ‘60s. Every aspect of life was different from today. Yes, the scribes and the bleacher bums will offer rebuttals, but the visions of Franklin were largely in place. WE can remember when schools were governed by a wickedly straight principal and one secretary. Sure, there were bad guys, but locally elected sheriffs were a force to be reckoned with, too. School boards would often lock the door to hammer out decisions that were deemed unanimous and they would act united regardless of the hostility that may have existed in the debate. Private business was the mainstay. There was no such thing as big box stores. Towns were vibrant and proud. Churches were full, and boys going off to the military were honored at home without NGO pledges.

            Life wasn’t perfect, but standards were heralded.

            It was a good time, and on Saturday nights there was even a dance somewhere. You may have to drive to get to it, but it was a celebrated in our own version of reset with five two steps, at least one swing, and two waltzes which were played in some fashion of succession.

            You’ve got to wonder what AI would think of that.

 

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Ask your dance partner to the middle of the kitchen floor and dance to Sweet Memories”.