Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for May 27, 2024

Something mightier than the pen can still be nothing but drivel.

With rare exception, it seems that the less time it takes to write something down, the less meaningful the message is.

The saying should be, “The pen is – potentially – mightier than the sword.” Like the sword, the power of the pen depends on the skill and wisdom of whoever holds it.

He’s talking about an article. She’s talking about an essay.

The search chatbot interrupted my game of “What’s that earworm?” with a long list of songs with those words. It did not include my target, where I started with the first 4 words of the song.

My wife (unfortunately now gone from this world) had advanced degrees in education. She told me about studies in which people wrote things out longhand, as opposed to typing them. Evidently, the two activities engage different areas of the brain, and the results of the studies showed that quicker learning and longer retention result from using a physical pen or pencil, rather than using a keyboard.

Of course kid. Them steenky bots going to takes over the world.

Amen… just don’t think about it… just don’t think about it… just don’t think about it…

But the sword gets right to the point.

Chat bots! Do change minds and shape social opinions. But only for the uneducated collage students. Yeah, very impressionable. When I start my religion, that’s where I’m gonna recruit.

Interesting that “sword” and “words” are the same letters.

WELL WRITTEN words can change minds

I would say that the quote compares two values, so the ‘pen’ would include the pencil, crayon, marker, keyboard, AI…..

He said that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Sadly, he died right after saying that.

That’s why they call them “keyboard WARRIORS”! Wait- no… that’s another thing..?

Might B.

Even Google’s latest AI Search Overview is sometimes delivering gibberish with the “AI” stamp-of-approval on it. It is actually rather rare but enough to be really, really scary.

Like the Dark Side, it is quicker, easier, and more seductive — not more powerful.

It reminds me of the guy who was asked to give a lecture. He said, if you want a 15 minute lecture, I can do it next week. If you want a half hour, I can do it in three days. If you want a two hour lecture, I can start now.

The exceptions are memorable..

I don’t know, the sword can change minds too, or else.

“He that complies against his will

Is of his own opinion still.”

—Samuel Butler (1612-1680), in Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 547

AI is going to ruin human creativity

The contrarian says, Sticks & stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us

I’m more worried about the phony political responses in the comments coming out of Russia and China, hoping to sow greater seeds of division among our nation. It’s a technological plague spreading lies like wildfire to the point that a good lot of people refuse to believe any facts which refute their political leanings.

If anybody is making glue pizzas and actually eating them, the chatbots have finally won.

In the musical 1776, John Adams had Martha Jefferson brought to Philly as an “incentive” to get her husband Tom to write the Declaration of Independence. When it became clear that Tom was more interested in “marital relations” than writing, Franklin said, “Maybe I should have written it. At my age, there can be no doubt that the pen is mightier than the sword.”