AI and Vinyl Records

You may be thinking how are these two remotely associated.  And if they are related, how are they relevant to a political website.  Please bear with me.

If  you grew up in the ‘60’s and 70’s, you saw the progression from viny records… to eight track tape… to cassette tape… to compact discs.  Today they do something called downloading and playlists; which have left me completely in the dark.  But amongst all this progress, several generations are making a return to vinyl records.  This is where I will try to make a point in politics. 

I think the return to vinyl, has something to do with being authentic.  Now that is a word you don’t hear in everyday conversation much anymore.  You also don’t hear authentic’s cousin genuine used much either.  As I remember there was something very authentic about vinyl records.  You went to the store and searched for your next investment in vinyl.  You were drawn by the record cover and its artwork.  Then you checked out the back of the album for a listing of the recordings inside.  You held something very tangible in your hands and it had a feeling of authenticity.  After purchasing the vinyl, you went home for the first playing.  You turned on something called a turntable and it felt very mechanical.  Your next move was to carefully place the needle on the vinyl spinning on the turntable.  Now compare this to whatever happens when you play a playlist.

All of this produced a feeling that I label as authentic.  You were involved in the playing of the vinyl.  You quickly learned that you were a part of the process in hearing the music.  My opinion is that various generations are returning to vinyl to recreate that authentic feeling.  Now consider our present state with artificial intelligence.  To me, artificial is the exact opposite of authentic.  So has the move to artificial intelligence created a need to find things that are authentic?  If we continue our pursuit of artificial intelligence, how will we know what is authentic in the future?  How will we know that the policy statements of a candidate comes from the candidate’s writings and not directly from Grok?  How will we know that visual images of a candidate working in a soup kitchen are real and not computer generated?  If we are detail oriented, how will we know the statistics we are reading for a party are really historical?  Lastly, how we know that the Hollywood-looking photo of the candidate and his/her family are authentic?

All these words to make the point that I fear what AI will do in the future to human activities like politics and the political process.   What are we doing now to ensure the authenticity and genuineness of the future?  If you compare AI to the Internet, the growth we are about to witness will be phenomenal.  How will we place controls that help to ensure the authenticity of the human race.