Some New Words for the New Year

Always more new words for us to learn!

        As a writer, I take words very seriously, trying hard to select the right word for what I mean to say.  However, I am finding it more and more difficult to keep up with new words that seem to pop up regularly.  In case some of you are experiencing the same confusion, here are some guides to new words than can be found in modern dictionaries!

    Hellscape  -  a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable or irredeemable.  I am not sure that I have found a use for this word yet, but perhaps that day might come! 

    Cakeism - the false belief that one can enjoy the benefits of two choices that are in fact mutually exclusive, the name taken from the notion of having your cake and eating it too.

    Decision fatigue - mental and emotional exhaustion resulting from excessive or relentless decision making, especially the cumulative effect of small decisions throughout each day.  I confess that my fatigue may be less about too many things I want to do than too few that seem worth doing!

    Bloatware - unwanted software that is preinstalled on a newly bought device, especially when it negatively impacts the device's performance.  This is definitely a word that I will find the need to remember as a result of changes I struggle to learn on my new lap top and the changed search link!

    Self-coup - a coup d'etat performed by the current, legitimate government or a duly elected head of state to retain or extend control over government, through an additional term, an extension of term, an expansion of executive power, the dismantling of other government branches, or the declaration that an election won by an opponent is illegitimate.  This word is new to me, and it sounds very scarry indeed!

    Digital nomad - a person who works remotely while traveling.  Once upon a time, that might have sounded like fun to me.  Lately, I am fairly content to stay close to home.

    GPT - abbreviation of Computers Digital Technology--a type of machine learning algorithm that uses deep learning and a large database of training text in order to generate new text in response to a user's prompt.  My definition of GPT is a little different:  Theft by downloading huge amounts of information created by others without compensation to use to 'create' content that can be used for advancing knowledge and eliminating the need from the people whose work was downloaded, as well as being used by people today and in the future because they do not want to take the effort to create things on their own or who have lost the skill to do it for themselves.  I know that my definition is rather narrow minded and harsh, but there is truth in it that deserves considering.

    Information pollution - the introduction of falsehood, irrelevance, bias, and sensationalism into a source of information, resulting in a dilution or outright suppression of essential facts.  

    In doing the research for this blog, I was amazed by the number of new words being added to dictionaries, and I was a bit reminded of my age, finding so many of them as unfamiliar and irrelevant to my life.  If you are curious for more new words, there are many more out there for you to find!  The research gave me "decision fatigue"!!!

    

Is AI a tool or a threat?

Is Artificial Intelligence a positive tool or a threat to humanity?

Medical Challenges of Covid,   Art by Lyn Fenwick

The pandemic was what awakened us to the potential of AI.  If you are curious, I recommend that you visit https://financesonline.com/ai-trends/ to learn more.  That article explains how AI can "spot anomalies early enough to give them time to dynamically respond to the threats."  Having recognized the threats, AI can move more quickly to create simulation modeling, workforce planning, and demand projection.  

Using AI to confront covid showed us the importance of quick responses and constant oversight, and having seen the value of AI, its development and use has advanced rapidly.  The question is, while we are smart enough to have made rapid advancements in AI technology, are we wise enough to establish ethical guardrails to avoid the abuses AI can accomplish?

Challenges on our Planet & in Deep Space

Google has announced a new computing device capable of doing in 3 minutes and 20 seconds what current supercomputers could not complete in under 10,000 years.  I cannot even wrap my mind around that capability.  

I struggle with blocking robocalls on my phone, and I am struggling with learning how to do the same things I did efficiently on my old computer on my new computer which has, so far, intimidated me.  I respect the fact that younger minds can deal more easily with the current computer world than I can, but are they wise enough to remain smarter than the computers they create?

We already know about the threat of spying on us through face book and the websites we visit, the ability to deceive us with altered images, the use of computers to draft essays assigned by teachers rather than doing the research and writing yourself, and the loss of personal skills once valued, like creating art, poetry, music, and cursive penmanship, relegating those skills to computers.   Are we willing to abandon too many of the things that define humanity, the ethical judgements, the wisdom of generations, the refinement of beauty in art and music, the very exercise of intelligence that allowed us to create these computers?  

Or, is this just a generational thing that parents and grandparents for centuries have viewed with skepticism and worry about the natural evolution of new thinking and the opportunities of technology?  I don't know.  But, I do know that the younger generation must be smarter than our generation has been because they are going to be responsible for far more dangerous decisions than past generations faced.