Directions
Where will the path lead us?
Do you ever get the sense that you are being pulled in a specific direction, as if circumstances are dragging you toward a path against your will?
I have been experiencing this over the past few weeks. As I discussed in a recent edition of Written In Stone, this publication was never intended to embody a ‘niche’ vibe. I have always envisioned The Stone Age as a bit of an outlier in the Stackiverse, with a variety of topics and interests being featured instead of the dreaded ‘one-trick pony’ format they promote so heavily.
Even with the focus shifting primarily to ‘living local,’ I still allowed myself plenty of wiggle-room to explore a myriad of subjects and news items. This was vital to me, because if there is one thing I cannot tolerate in my day-to-day (whether speaking professionally or recreationally), it is feeling restrained… trapped.
I need the freedom to go where the proverbial spirit leads me, otherwise I start to feel like a bird in a cage. Writing within the general field of local-living affords me that freedom, allowing me to avoid that ‘trapped’ feeling.
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With that noted, the aforementioned ‘spirit’ has recently been leading me to one specific topic: Digitalization. The stories I have been reading - along with a rather unsettling incident - has been driving me to pursue this line of inquiry.
Why, you may ask? Because I am beginning to see digitalization in general - and the insidious nature of AI in particular - as the greatest threat we face when it comes to living local.
To living ‘Natural’.
With that in mind, let us discuss ‘the incident’ for a moment. Here is a slightly-rewritten and edited summary of what I shared with Stone Age Members on May 24th…
I received a direct message, via X, from someone I’ve known online for years. As I am changing the names to protect the innocent, we’ll refer to her as Crista. Crista was very concerned (actually, ‘irate’ is a better word) that a troll account on X, whom we’ll call Roger, was targeting her.
Roger (whose account is anonymous) was claiming that Crista was engaging in lewd behaviors with her group of X friends. As his follow-count includes tens of thousands, AND as she is a happily married woman of over 20 years? This was a pretty serious issue, with potential ‘slander’ concerns.
So you may be wondering what this has to do with me, or AI. Well, the reason Crista reached out was because when one of her friends asked Grok (the X AI program) who Roger really was, this is what it spit out…
Now, here’s the thing. I had never even seen this Roger account before these interactions with Crista, much less been associated with it. Even more bizarre, the 'T' account mentioned in the screenshot (we'll call him Tim) is someone I know... someone I follow on X.
Someone I actually met here, on Substack.
As such, I decided to search Tim’s X feed, to see if he had ever mentioned Roger OR myself; turns out, he had not. So why exactly was Grok making this 100% false assertion, based on entirely incorrect information?
And it is here where things could have turned ugly. THIS time it was Crista, someone with whom I am familiar, so she was able to reach out to clarify the situation. She knew I would not do such a thing (based not only on being a friend, but also the fact I never engage in Internet drama), so whatever potential damage that could have come my way was quickly diffused.
But what if it had been someone else? Someone I did NOT know? Someone less… stable. It could have easily put me in the proverbial - perhaps literal - crosshairs of a psychopath… based on an absolute falsehood.
And this very thing could happen to you, too. Even if you have genuinely done nothing wrong…
While I have spoken out on multiple occasions about text-based AI (especially Chat GPT), up until this point I had viewed Grok as a quasi-reliable starter-point for research. While not exactly trustworthy, I found the information it generated solid enough to give me a path for digging deeper, and for seeking sources upon which I could rely.
It was also kind of fun. It is not so ‘fun’ anymore.
We must also consider the recent story of the US House of Representative passing the ‘big, beautiful bill’, because within that bill is a section most troubling…
US House Passes 10-Year Moratorium on State AI Laws
Tech Policy
And yes, it is as bad as it sounds…
The United States House of Representatives early Thursday narrowly passed a budget bill that, if enacted, would ban states from enforcing laws regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years.
In a largely party-line vote of 215 to 214, House Republicans approved the so-called “One Big, Beautiful” bill, or H.R. 1, which includes a range of GOP priorities on taxes and immigration and promises to usher in President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
An obscene tenth-amendment violation (one which Rep Marjorie Tayler Green condemned after having voted for it*), this will handcuff State legislatures and prevent them from passing laws to protect their own citizens - including children - from potential AI harm. While the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, if things go as they have over the previous four months then the President will get what he wants, and the States will be left with no options to defend themselves against AI intrusions.
Considering the Globalist Cabal’s drive to make everything on Earth ‘artificial’, along with its apparent AI-based alliance with the Trump administration and our current Congress? Yes, stripping the States (meaning, ‘We, The People’) of their rights does concern me greatly.
So while I sincerely hope to continue to focus on a multitude of topics and subjects related to living local, I cannot help but think digitalization, and the associated march of AI, are going to be major talking points here. I suppose if one is going to have a site called The Stone Age, it only makes sense that unnatural tech which threatens natural living could become a hot-topic.
I just never considered the possibility that discussing the dangers of AI might become a ‘thing’ of mine. Whether it becomes THE thing, however, remains to be seen.
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Something New…
Recently Cori Bren of Bren’s Buzz asked me to write a brief segment to discuss how ‘living local’ has benefitted my life, which I was happy to do. I encourage to you check it out, not only for my contribution but for Cori’s overall article. In it, she covers her personal experiences with the medical ‘industry’, and how she is reclaiming her own health and well-being.
It’s a great piece…
Swing by BMaC or Ko-fi to drop some coin in the tip-jar, because every little bit helps…
Notes
* We really need to outlaw the ‘omnibus bills’, no matter how ‘beautiful’ someone claims they are. If we demand single-issue bills only, it will give congresspeople the time to read them… before voting ON them.
-- Special thanks to Nina Khosla, for her editing expertise.
-- Unless otherwise credited, all images were generated by the author via NightCafe, Grok 3 [X], or Substack’s AI Image Tool, with digital alterations when desired or needed.
-- Any memes created by the author will have a “The Stone Age” watermark attached; all other memes were snatched from various sources on the Internet.
Incredible. Makes me want to turn off my phone and do like my mother does live without Internet!!!
I can’t agree with you more. This whole AI thing just has the makings of being just a little bit too much. The potential for demons infiltrating, abusing, and using it for the wrong reasons are quite disturbing. I’m really thinking that although there are good things about this, right now, the negatives are outweighing positives.