 |
These new Pisgah Range shoelaces had to brave the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to get to me. |
Do you care that a person wrote this?
If the same column were spat out by a machine, would you read it differently? Would you read it at all?
I'm not sure.
We are nearing a time when algorithms can tell a story. Maybe even a good story; why not, since it's scraped from every other story ever written?
So expect even more thrilling thrillers. Steamier romances. Funnier comedies. Who'll care they were composed in .002 seconds by a computer? The important thing is there is no author to pay.
Still. AI doesn't replace a person, yet. Not to me anyway. I've had several unexpected human encounters in the anonymous electronic churn of online commerce and am grateful for them.
First, I had some post-wedding business to take care of. My mother wanted to give a gift to my younger son and his new bride, and since she no longer navigates the online world, I volunteered to do it.
On their wedding website, I selected a set of lovely coasters and was directed to someplace called Scully & Scully. I took my father's credit card and made the purchase. Lovely embroidered pink elephant coasters. No new household is complete without them.
A day went by.
The phone rang. "Scully & Scully" calling. The person on the line pointed out the address where the gift was to be shipped — our home, since the happy couple was honeymooning in Mexico — and the address on the credit card didn't match.
A security issue. I tried to explain — it wasn't my card but my father's. I was authorized to use it. That didn't fly; the order was canceled.
The next day, I phoned Scully & Scully, thinking to remedy the situation, and ended up with Carol Tytla, in the registry department. And here is where things got strange — several phone calls were needed to finally get those coasters on their way.
And at one point, Carol and I were just talking, chatting like friends — about weddings, our lives, what sort of store Scully & Scully is. Like Neiman Marcus? I wondered. No, she said, more like Gump's. Oh, I've been to Gump's! I exclaimed. In Dallas. My sister lives there ...
Suddenly, I worried Carol might get in trouble. I'd hate to get the woman fired. She said, no, things were quiet at the bridal registry department. Scully & Scully, at 59th and Madison in New York City, is an old school kind of store.
"Mr. Scully is here every day," she said.
That seemed worth investigating.
To continue reading, click here.
I would have enjoyed reading the rest of the story however I got too frustrated after the frickin video played for the fourth time! I am not donating to the paper to read a few stories a day. I donate to charities.
ReplyDeleteAnd I suppose subscribing is off the table? It's $72 a year....
DeleteI buy a paper copy every day at the 7-Eleven so I eventually get the whole column. I solve the three crosswords each day. Can't do that online.
DeleteI get partial home delivery of 3 papers. My neighbor commented on Sunday about 3 papers on the driveway which is unusual, i admit. (Gotta have NYT Book Review) I thought about going all digital, except the Book review, but I felt bad for my faithful delivery guy.
DeleteAfter the video plays, a screen solicits donations. At the bottom of that screen, you are given the option of "no donation, take me to the article."
DeleteSince you're anonymous, you won't mind if I say that I, too, am frugal (aka a tightwad,) but I occasionally loosen the purse-strings out of appreciation for good and timely writing, such as our host's. There's a lot available online; but as in all art, knowing the author through the years (prickly and soft hearted, opinionated and open minded, stuffed shirt and backyard playhouse builder,) enhances the appreciation of his work. And there's always the risk that he might go the route of Eric Zorn, not to imply parity in any way.
Not much risk for now. Believe it or not, some mucky-mucky from Substack phoned me and INVITED me to join. (EGD did have 550,000 or so hits last month, which is approaching significance). But in the fine print, Substack has more control over your stuff than I was comfortable yielding. And while the paper is firehosing money at me, there's no need to monetize things here, beyond Eli's holiday advertisements, of course). Eric says he gets about half his old Tribune salary by ratting a cup at readers, so it is considerable. Let's put it this way. About 900 people signed up for free to get the blog emailed to them every morning. If I charged them $10 a month, what would that figure be? 90 people? For $900 a month, I'd rather avoid the hassle — coming full circle to the gyrations the paper forces some people to go through.
DeleteMe too. The Sun-Times chases readers away.
DeleteAmateur operation on line
been a subscriber for years, money well spent also subscribe to the trib now that they're a guild shop, and gray lady electronically and and weekend home delivery. the nyt political coverage is crap, but i like the arts, book reviews and foreign coverage. been doing the times of israel since the october 7 event, pretty balanced and decent, and for 6 bucks a month, well worth it.
Deletefor god's sake give a few bucks to the sun times, it's a good paper and covers the city way better than either the trib (a mostly suburb centric pub these days) or for that matter, the local public radio outlet.
So the "frickin video" plays for the fourth time? And every time you wanna read a story. BFD. What's another thirty seconds out of your life? After a while, you get used to it. I have. Bothered me at first, but now it's not such a problem anymore. And Sun-Times it doesn't happen at all. JFC...get a grip.
DeleteGreat read, heartwarming human stories, thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteI find myself using AI quite a bit lately for looking things up, although I know not to trust it as occasionally it does get things wrong. I think we're in the nascent phase of discovering a new tool that has not been perfected yet we and have not yet learned to apply it properly.
I think as it improves it will take over some parts of our lives and be deemed a helpful convenience, but we will crave and pay premium for human involvement, just like "home made" or "hand made" or "natural" have been selling points over "mass produced" or "synthetic". It's possible cheap AI-produced novels and movies will be available, but the ones created by human writers or directors will draw wider and more appreciative and devoted audiences.
Separately, I am not a subscriber, but I had no problems reading this story in full on the S-T site, I didn't even notice the video at first, but now looking again it's very easy to mute it or close entirely. Speaking of learning to live with new technology....
I believe the entertainment companies have been in cohoots with AI techs since its inception, planning the overthrow of humanity. Look at what crap has been touted as good writing in tv, film. All special effects and very little real human. Music has pitch correction, autotune. They have purposely damaged discernment and appreciation in a whole generation. AI will finish the next.
DeleteI often lament about how easy it is to not be liberal.
ReplyDeleteIt is much easier to simply buy the cheapest thing and complain about not getting it "in time." People care only about their existence. Most care so little about anyone else.
Giant faceless behemoths control nearly every aspect of our lives, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. A race to the bottom of both quality and price. And as we try to eke out a living, its all too tempting to keep as much as we can for ourselves.
These days, we are so impersonal that it's easy not to care. There was something important about watching someone stock a store and make a change.
Its important to not forget the human side of the story. Fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Their victories may have no direct impact on you, but that's ok. It's called altruism, and its a heck of a lot better than what we deal with every day.
Well said, BB. I don't remember you commenting before. Thanks for jumping in.
DeleteI managed to forget to turn myself to "anonymous" in hopes of avoiding judgement and the ability to tell more personal stories without people realizing who they are about.
DeleteIt all stems back from that time in high school where the author of an anonymous post received the best feedback of their life, because no one know who wrote it. Yes... I wrote it.
Mr. B
Nice to see Mr. Eisenberg again.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to read about your encounters with fellow humans at the end of the phone line and via chat. I’m glad things worked out, and so pleasantly, too.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite quotes is this one from Alan Bennett’s play (and screenplay) The History Boys:
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.”
I wouldn’t feel any engagement with a column extruded by a machine, nor machine-generated art in any form. A story wouldn’t thrill me or warm me or intrigue me if there was no person behind it.
For that matter, I’m not even crazy about the AI results at the top of the page when I use Google to look up factual information. More than once I’ve tried to find out the meaning of a phrase or expression only to have the AI bot offer up a wrong answer.
Oh, and I’d love to see a picture of these pink elephant coasters.
what a lovely quote joyce
DeleteI'm glad you like it pgw. It's one I hold dear.
Delete"...a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else..." That is a wonderful feeling...almost electric. Thanks for the great quote.
DeleteDon't you hate it when you are having a crappy day and somebody goes and does something that makes you stop, step back and appreciate something. Ugh! Thankfully this doesn't happen often. Mine recently was watching a young lady bussing all the tables at a small restaurant. It was after 1 PM but the place was packed. I was amazed at how diligent she worked. Methodically, going up and down the rows of tables/booths. I likewise noted how few tips were 'not being' left. I left a good sized tip - hoping that it might brighten her day, as her hard working attitude brightened mine. It was no hurricane- but service minded.
ReplyDeletepeople rarely leave cash tips anymore. the tip is added at the point of purchase when you pay with your card.
DeleteCash tips are usually much more appreciated & it can go right into the servers' pockets. Who knows what happens with charged tips. We'll put the minimum tip on the card, but always have some extra cash ready for the person.
DeleteWonderful to hear the encounters with humans. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
ReplyDeleteThe other day I stopped for ice cream at a local franchise, used the drive up and the young lady was giving me my change. There was 3-4 bucks and I told her to keep it. “Are you sure?” She asked and then said, thanks sir, you just paid for my coffee tomorrow. The thought of her enjoying that coffee…good for her.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful piece today including all the comments. Encounters with good humans with kind and grateful stories, face to face or online are more important than ever. I did watch the ST video and read the entire totally lovely story. I went to Scully and Scully's website to see some of the fancy things (not my cuppa tea but lovely) to find the company is 90 years old this year. That kind of service give a company longevity in addition to quality products. We had a very meaningful encounter last evening with a kind nurse. We traveled 3 hours yesterday so my husband could have skin surgery-which went well until some attention getting bleeding started early evening. At the office "Mo" directed us to call if issues and she would get the message and she did. She called back as I was sopping up-as directed:(driving back there was not an option and 1/2 from an ER) , we put 20 minutes of hard pressure (it's a long 20 minutes) got it stopped, called her back and she talked me thru the process of putting another pressure bandage on top via facetime. She, cool a cuke. Husband face down on couch, me freaking out getting gauze, tape together, phone on his butt. She calls out to a small child, 'hey buddy, I need to trim your fingers and toes" And I watched this, as the phone goes out of control-with blurred toes, clippers and kid with a juice box, out of the corner of my eye, we start giggling...she explains this her night with him and she has a list of things....I'm done and show the bandage to her. And she's like, "see what you can do!". "Well, thanks to you Mo!" We go thru the next set of instructions--in case it goes south. It didn't and here we are this morning reading EGGD. Am thinking she might get something from Skully and Skully when we see her in a few weeks. Happy holidays and hope there's cheesecake in it for ya. Oh! Maybe she gets a cheesecake!
ReplyDelete