Hello Friends,
There is an often-misquoted line about those who don’t study history being doomed to repeat it. It is attributed to Churchill, but odds are he picked it up from a Spanish philosopher called George Santayana. Right now, you are likely trying to remember the exact quote from Churchill, or looking it up to see if I am right about Santayana, or wondering what Twain said about it (something about rhyming), and then looking that up, or all three things. That’s totally fine. The internet is our memory now.
I mean, it is super convenient to just do a quick search and find “the answer” from whatever search engine we use, or even easier we can just ask our smart device. We can shout, “Hey (Alexa or Siri) what did Churchill say about history?” She will likely give you a close enough answer that you could pass a test or get it right on Jeopardy. I can’t test it because I don’t use those things. When I get a new device, I do my best to shut her off but I suspect her of listening in anyway. We’ve all been talking about something only to see an ad for it later that day. Not creepy at all right? Totally fine. I’m fine. Hal is always right.
What was I saying? Sorry.
Interestingly enough, while NO one says “Hey Cortana” (you should totally BING that to find out what she is), Bill Gates has the last laugh as Microsoft owns Chat GPT, which is apparently even better because it has now the internet can remember for us AND think for us too. I just sat through a presentation at work about the AI overlords and the keynote speaker told my students that it was fine to use AI and Chat GPT 4.0 to help them write papers. She was very clear that they should NOT use versions 3.5, or lower because those are racist and they lie although she wasn't totally convincing that the new version won't learn to be a racist, sexist liar too. It "learns" by reading the rest of the internet. (You should totally Google that to learn more about it but use DuckDuckGo so you can’t be traced by Hal who is always right. If you don’t get the Hal reference, Yahoo that).
This speaker made it very clear that it was fine for students who were “stuck” to use Chat GPT to “help” write the first paragraph of a paper, or even the middle, or just the ending, or the title, or, or, or…She had so many ors, I thought she was rowing a boat (rim shot noise!). I didn’t care for the presentation. I thought she was wrong about a lot of things, but she was the expert because she wrote the book. An actual book about AI.
I suspect that in 30 days or 6 months or whenever Hal takes over, her book is going to be totally out of date. Books take a LONG time to write and sometimes a longer time to be published. You know what books won’t be irrelevant 30 days after they are published? Books about history told from the long view, with as many primary sources as possible, OR works of historical fiction based on research, or both. Let’s face it, we’ve all learned something HUGE from a work of historical fiction. I learned about the horrific Japanese concentration camps in America during WWII from a work of historical fiction. I learned more by reading the historical record. I’ve continued my education by reading books like Daniel James Brown’s brilliant, and moving, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II and George Takei’s graphic memoir They Called us Enemy.
These works will hold up for days, and weeks, and centuries after being written because they are not trying to capture some flash in the pan for a quick payday. They work because they do something that Wikipedia (which is where many people get information when they Google, or BING, or Yahoo something and where Alexa or Siri often find their answers), can never do. They remain fixed in time. They went through an editorial process. They were peer reviewed. Experts were consulted. Research was done. They hold onto the facts upon which they are built and can’t be changed by the algorithm or an angry editor on Wikipedia, or even a mischievous one. I am guilty of changing the entries on Wikipedia from time to time to prove a point to my students. I’m the worst.
Look, I love technology. It allows me to do my job, and send this newsletter, put books on hold at the library, check the weather, or football scores, or listen to music, or, or, or (row, row, row my boat). While the internet is here to stay, and I am all for it, we have to admit it is amorphous and we don’t really understand how it works. Thus, friends, I can’t possibly recommend enough that people do themselves a favor and go analog once in a while and read something that was built to last (even if it is an eBook, it still went through the same process). Wouldn’t you rather be the last person to learn something but trust that you actually know facts about it than be the first person to hear about something that is quite possibly riddled with errors? I know I would.
Notes From My Bookshelf
In the spirit of the topic, I recently read Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. Oof. It is brutally honest and offers some keen insight into many of the other pointless wars that are happening around us. We learn about one conflict and we can understand another conflict. Books. They just give and give.
In this historical fiction side of things, I can’t recommend Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini enough. She fills this book with a myriad of real-life feminist icons about whom I knew nothing before I read the book, but about whom, I will certainly find out more. You know, from books.
Notes from my Keyboard
I moved past the 50,000-word mark on book 3 of the Austen Chronicles. It feels amazing. It is humming along and I hope to get a ton of writing done over the coming holiday break.
Speaking of humming… I know this is not from my keyboard, but it is about my writing. Please check out my appearance on the Humming Fools podcast. An excellent time was had by all.
The book, Waxing and Waning is out now. I have an essay in there. It is pretty cool. Please consider giving it a read and/or requesting it for your local library.
If you haven’t yet, I would really, really appreciate it if you would leave a review of Welcome to Mansfield on Goodreads. It is free and it is a great place to keep track of the other books you’ve read. The more people who leave reviews, the more Hal pays attention and pushes the book into readers’ feeds. Please and thank you.
Finally, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Welcome to Mansfield or if you want to give it as a gift, you can get an eBook with a 25 percent discount until Cyber Monday. Click here, add the eBook to cart right from that page and then use the coupon code 4HPBLACKFRIDAY at checkout.
Thanks again to you all for subscribing.
Enjoy the holiday and the football,
ARF
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