At first glance, you'd think writing would be easy.
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway
Maybe for some writers, it's easy. I have yet to meet one, at least a good one. Don't let anyone fool you; consistently creating high quality content is hard work.
My Robot Writer?
Photo courtesy of Siyan Ren and http://unsplash.com
With few exceptions, I agonize over my topic. I write a draft, read it, re-write it, and grumble a little. I don't like the flow; back to the keyboard. Thank God for computers, or I'd be buried a mile deep in crumpled paper!
But what if writing were effortless?
What if content creation were automatic? Some days, I wake up wishing I had a robot to do my chores for me. Seems like everyone else does.
Be careful what you wish for! Think about it. What would we, as content creators do?
"Robbie, turn out a bit of flash fiction, would you? Sci-fi, with a dash of romance and a happy ending. Let me know when you're done, I'll be down on the beach."
Where's the creativity in that? The job satisfaction?
Look around you. More and more tasks are being automated, taken over by heartless machines.
Typesetters were replaced, first by linotype machines, later by computer editors. Now the newspaper industry is dying. Assembly line workers, pushed out by industrial robots. Everywhere you look, machine replacing man.
In Philadelphia, Uber drivers no longer drive. They merely sit behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle, satisfying some obscure government regulation. How long will that last? Better dig out the classifieds.
Long-haul truck drivers will all be on unemployment before long. Their big rigs will be driven by other truckers, automatons that won't need a truck stop waitress to smile at them, or a bathroom break.
Thank God, AIs haven't yet matched human creativity.
I think we writers are safe, at least for a little while... Or are we?
If Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge, Elon Musk, and other futurists are right, we'd better watch our backs! We'll be the next working stiffs to be involuntarily retired. I can see us now, languishing on the shoulder of the Information Superhighway, watching cyber-witty popular content flow by, hoping to hitch a ride.
Can you say "Artificially intelligent, autonomously self-perpetuating, content-rich blockchain?" That's what I thought.
I can say it, but do I want it? I don't think so. I'm not quite ready to retire this 100 billion neuron, 1.35Kg collection of grey matter. Not just yet.
FIN
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
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