Oh how I hate AI.
I feel AI being forced upon us in all aspects of our lives. My job is pushing it into every aspect of my day and I feel like I am watching a slow motion implosion of my career. Yes, I SUPPOSE AI could do the practical aspects of my job, but my job is based on human interaction and creating relationships which can’t be duplicated by a program. My directors won’t really realize that until my entire team is replaced by something called Twonk or something equally as stupid when it comes to naming AI programs.
Naming an AI program something cute doesn’t endear me to it.
I see AI slop in commercials and advertisements and food packaging. It’s seeping into entertainment and art is being intentionally, or at least carelessly, destroyed and creative people are being replaced. We are cannibalizing ourselves and cheering the entire time.
The technology is impressive, I will concede that. But it’s the same impressiveness that the atomic bomb has. It’s like, wow, that is something but maybe we should not have done this.
‘Jurassic Park’ tried to teach us about the dangers of science without consciousness but humans have a remarkably selective and short-term memory. Just because something is fiction it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it.
This seemingly aggressive effort to impose AI on us is (I feel) meant to wear us down. To get us to the point where we accept that AI is inevitable and as it slowly and intentionally eliminates people in everything (whether customer service or art). It’s meant to force us to surrender to it. It’s giving us a fight that is too big to resist. It wants us to give up and to give in and to remove all stigma of using it.
Part of me dies when I learn of an artist, whether they are a musician, filmmaker, a writer, or an illustrator admit to using an AI program to “create”. Yes, it might have been used in a small amount, but it is a slippery slope. Using something once because it was easier (or cheaper) will usually lead to using it again, and likely for something bigger.
And it snowballs.
Anyway, what does this have to with my silly little website about gender? I woke up thinking about the advancements in technology and how it needs to evolve at the same pace as humans. What I mean is that if we are not smart enough, moral enough, or responsible enough to wield the technology we create, then we probably should not create it. It’s not a computer that decides to replace a workforce with AI, it’s a human trying to save some money. It’s not a bomb that chooses to detonate a city, it’s a human who decides to use it.
Although it’s hard to remember sometimes, humans DO evolve and we CAN and we SHOULD.
We can and should look at things differently over time and we can and should shape our perspective when new facts come to light. Our viewpoint on gender and race have evolved but not nearly enough.
Technology isn’t always what a computer can do, it also can be about what the medical field can do. Things like hormones and gender affirming procedures are amazing. I’ve seen remarkable “before and after” photos of being who have physically changed their gender.
Although I am not going to undergo any such procedure, my gender presentation also benefits from advancements specifically in makeup and cosmetics. Every once in a while a new product such as foundation hits the market and I am delighted by how effective it is when it comes to covering any trace of facial hair or how effective a highlighter is when it comes to contouring my face.
Technical advancements in cosmetics (whether surgical or in a product) can impact your femme presentation but, well, that’s about it. What it doesn’t change is someone else’s thinking.
Before I go any further I want to stress that what someone else thinks about you isn’t important or worth a second of your time or a fraction of your energy. There will always be idiots who think that some women (transgender and cisgender) aren’t feminine enough. When you realize that you live on a planet where some dude thinks that the most gorgeous woman in the world looks “mid”, then you have to accept that no matter what YOU do, you will never look beautiful to that dude.
Who cares? It’s not like he is the authority when it comes to feminine standards. NO ONE is. I have no interest in meeting anyone’s expectation when it comes to how I am, or another woman, is “supposed” to look.
When someone notable, such as a public figure, transitions (whether legally, socially, or medically) then the world will often share it’s opinion. None of these opinions are solicited and many of them are cruel. It’s not uncommon to read things like “they are still a man” or other comments that are even meaner. No matter how someone looks now that they have transitioned, no matter how feminine, no matter how “cis-passing” they are, there will always, ALWAYS be an idiot who says that they are not, and they will never be, a woman.
Medical advancements be damned, they will not silence the hate.
Right now science is advancing at incredible speeds, and it’s arguable that these advancements should be made at all (again, think about the scientists in ‘Jurassic Park’). These advancements are not synching with human evolution. Evolution in thinking takes time and we need to advance human attitude at the same pace as technology.
As wonderful as it is to see just what medical science can do when it comes to gender affirming procedures, we also need to invest our time and energy into deconstructing the idea that gender is a binary. We need social advancements that continue to strip away the antiquated thinking of what determines gender.
Love, Hannah
