Someone posted this on Hacker News, a forum for techies and V.C.'s
In the thread, "Apple's Plan for AI Dominance Rests on Fixing Its Much-Maligned Chatbot"
I view and use computers as tools. They (mostly) do what I command.
That's because I am by nature a problem solver, and so are others. In fact, if knowledge consists of understanding a particular domain, and wisdom consists of applying knowledge across different domains, creativity of a sort, one of them being that unknown called the future then "button pusher" answers kill my ability to deal with future situations which are not recorded in "The Book of Common Knowledge" (a SNL reference).
When "computers" wrestle control of the situation and solve everything, then, as someone said in the early 20th century "Everything that can be invented has already been invented" then there's now no need for computers at all, since "Every problem can be solved by a chatbot" and no need for creative (genius) things like the famous "Wordless Workshop" that ran in Popular Science and Family Handyman magazines.
Just answer machines. No need to learn anything, nor to create.
Creativity and genius move us forward. That's why we have Hacker News as opposed to those "answer forums"
I managed a group of techies, where one guy would look for the 'button-pusher" answer. He'd partition a disk where the partitions overlapped, causing disaster. I had to redo his work from scratch, "by the numbers". And learning is a step by step, "get the basics right" process, one that I emphasized.
You can often solve a tough problem by going back to basics or first principles. (yes, I got a physics degree long time ago) Shortcuts do not help you with the next problem and the next. Sitting near the computer is the little neon-bulb thing that tells me that an electrical line is dead or alive before I go play with it, and during my distinguished service as an Electrician's Mate Third Class --- as Herbert T. Gillis would say "WITH the good conduct medal" --- I also learned to apply electrical tape to the associated circuit breaker so that nobody could accidentally reset it. Some levers on breakers have little drill-throughs into which you can insert a wire tag.
= new reply since forum marked as read