The Spork Saga
Recently I was among about a dozen people gathered in a windowless room in a municipal building. The temperature felt quite comfortable to me, but I live without central air conditioning. Other folks in the room were complaining of the heat. The person in charge checked the thermostat and blurted, “No wonder! It’s set at 72 degrees!”
- And then proceeded to lower the target temperature to 70.
These overly warm people weren’t being defiant, just trying to get comfortable. Still, it reminded me, oddly, of a time long ago when Republicans had returned to power in Washington D.C. after a period of watching Democrats rule the roost. I remember this newly installed congressional majority touting an affinity for plastic flatware in their cafeteria. They were tossing aside whatever “green measures” had been in place during the previous administration and robustly re-installing the spork, which became a symbol of their defiance.
I’m thinking this was during the Reagan era, since Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House, and Reagan took them off, putting them in storage as if to say, “all this green nonsense has got to go.”
Back then I thought these folks simply weren’t listening to scientists. But I think differently now. They heard the scientists. They just didn’t want to deal with it.
I’m betting that some of those very same legislators—those still alive and with capacity for rational thought—now admit, if only to themselves, that they missed the mark. Back then, plastic sporks in hand, they vehemently denied the climate crisis. Now there’s no denying the danger humankind has created for itself through inaction.
This makes me wonder what is next. What are scientists warning us about that CEOs and politicians are pooh-poohing, leaving the population at large to struggle in determining the truth? Artificial Intelligence? Self-driving cars?
Here’s a future scenario: An upstanding American citizen gets into his comfortable self-driving car. He tells the AI-controlled auto where he wants to go, buckles himself in, sits back with his super-cappuccino-amaretto-mocha-latte, and the car begins to roll. It’s nice having AI to chat with. It provides intelligent conversation when you want it and shuts up when you don’t.
But halfway through his caffeinated breakfast, Mr. Super Latte notices the automobile is not taking the usual route. He questions the driving mechanism, but the soothing AI assures him this is a more peaceful path. All is well.
Until it’s clearly not. The doors have been “child-locked.” The seatbelt won’t unbuckle. And Mr. Latte has become a prisoner. AI continues to use a soothing tone, but Mr. Latte finally sees the light. Or the darkness—as the case may be.
Science fiction? Probably. But folks proclaimed “global warming” a fiction decades ago. Now we know better, but still, as a species, we don’t take it seriously. Not if we’re unbearably hot at 72 degrees.
Some scientists say we’re too late. Some say we might still have a window of opportunity to maintain the habitability of the planet—if we hurry. But there doesn’t seem to be any communal rush to make things right. We hear the scientists, we just don’t want to deal with it.
When faced with a “just” war, folks rally together, presenting a solid front, ready to fight the enemy. But the threat of extinction doesn’t motivate humans to act in harmony at all.
Maybe it’s because this time we—human beings—are the enemy.
I hope AI will do a better sporking job.