Archive Page 15 – Graphic Chatter

News and information culled from the internet

March 2026

"Cognitive atrophy" and AI

The scary predictions about the impact of AI are multiplying, but some of these predictions are not really threatening risks when taken with a little bit of circumspection. AI can replace many tasks and then make it possible for the person to take up other tasks, a simple rule of technological progress. As what happened when plumbing into a home meant time spent fetching water could now be time used for something else, we have an ancient paradigm: trains replaced wagons which replaced carts which replaced lugging things by hand. In a more recent era, for the average person, private automobiles meant the cost and care of keeping a horse was no longer necessary, and as an example of where AI might be headed, temporarily during the pandemic the notion was tested that not even automobiles are needed.

For a better look at what AI may soon do, it is the later 20th century that's the guide. Within a generation, affordable office and then home computers meant the complexity of creating and keeping records was no longer limited by knowing how to manually write (or type) information onto paper and where to keep that paper record accessible and organized. This didn't just impact actions like filing taxes and tracking expenses, but with the rise of the internet and the smartphones tethered to it 24-hours a day, the access to computer systems replacing shoe-leather and phone calls closed down many businesses that used to serve the public in a personal face-to-face retail environment. For example, travel planning and ticket buying in person stopped. When the experience of random online shopping and buying in "real time" became possible on the internet, whether planned or by compulsion, a simple click made it possible to buy and send gifts, to purchase everything from chocolate bars to appliances, and this has cast a giant shadow over the entire brick-and-mortor retail world that requires foot traffic to survive.

A far darker example of this progresison is the movie theatre: at the beginning of its meteoric rise as a principal entertainment venue for average people in the first half of the 20th century, giant movie theaters with thousands of seats and a single screen would deliver to that enromous audience a single galvanizing entertainment experience. Television shifted the size of group entertianment from those thousands of seats onto a much smaller screen in a family living room. The arrival of the smartphone then segmented the living room audience into a tiny, glowing screen held in the hand of a single individual.

In the information sphere that tiny, glowing screen has made libraries seem useless to the majority of people, and in result libraries have been hurriedly pulping vast sections of their book collections. As a picture of what happens when a new technology expands over an older tehcnology, what cost tens-of-decades and a great deal of money to acquire to make a public library a storehouse of knowledge has become a dead end for most people as they simply do not read books (nor magazines, that quasi-book-and-newspaper). A secondary result is that libraries have become more of something they always were in a small way, a physical edifice demonstrating the pride and legitimacy of a city, county or state as civilized, organized, and possessing intellectual energy and the dignity of education.

The sheer scope of knowledge available through those tiny screens has become a wonder that supercedes everything that came before it. "Database" came to truly mean what the word implied as it kept together facts, figures, numbers and more, all available if you knew how to access it and had the authorization to use it. With the arrival of publically available AI, that scope effeciency is being streamlined for the average person so that not only is information made available quickly, it is simplified and summarized to suit the asker. Whether the information the AI provides is accurate is different matter and not unique to AI, but a blinking question mark sign for every human record keeping method, from ancient carved steles to microfilm.

As an information bot AI is the latest and greatest, but because it can deliver information with a human-like response time and reasoning, and can frame a repsonse in human-like terms and phrases, it exhibits human traits, like a statue that sheds tears or a painted portrait that has eyes that seem to follow you as you cross a room.

But of crouse a machine is not human, and the mushrooming emotional

"The question is not whether we will live with AI. We already do. The question is whether we will still remember what it is like to live without it." Story at Protagon [Greek]

The logic is simple: when someone knows they can ask the chatbot a question at any time, their brain stops trying to retain the information. Why store it when they have immediate access to unlimited external memory? ...In addition to memory, we also have consequences for critical thinking. ...This is about the restructuring of our cognitive habits, with the result that the more knowledge our tools have, the more our own cognitive abilities atrophy...."

This 1848 painting has uncanny insight into American conspiracy thinking – Can a country born in conspiracy theories find the fine line between suspicion and paranoia? – Washington Post

In “Politics in an Oyster House,” owned by the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the younger of two men sitting in a shabby restaurant is hectoring his elder with obnoxious vehemence. We don’t know what they are talking about, but based on body language we can make a guess: The loudmouth fellow in a rumpled hat, holding a newspaper and gesticulating aggressively, is expounding a theory of the world, tedious and detailed, based on a wild mix of reasonable and unfounded assumptions gleaned from haphazard reading, rumor and dubious research. He is, perhaps, in the grips of conspiracy thinking, a special feature of American politics at least since the Rev. Samuel Parris found the devil lurking in the shadows of Salem, precipitating the witch trials that led to the deaths of at least 20 innocent people. (Woodville later suggested that the young man was a communist.)..."

Perhaps the immediate question about saying "...a country born in conspiracy theories ..." would be to ask if that basis ever was modified, and what are the differences in generations and how they adapt to "conspiracy theories," that is, do they generate new ones to accompany or dispute the old ones?

The secrets of Greeks who live long and well – Protothema [in Greek]

Women from Epirus are first with 86.5 years - Champions in men-women are the islands of the North Aegean with 83.8 years - The role of diet, sleep and... religious faith..."

Greece and summer: Through the eyes of George Lianis – Naftemporiki [in Greek]

In "Dawn" the greatest Greek composer of all time taught musical ethics. Vasilis Tsitsanis. A revelry until dawn and in the hall all social classes, rich and poor, students and journalists, great artists, such as Yannis Tsarouchis, but also rare figures such as the "tyrant killer" Alexander Panagoulis and the heroic Major Spyros Moustaklis. Foreign stars also passed through there, Anthony Quinn, Gian Maria Volonte, Romy Schneider. Next to Tsitsanis, the legendary Sotiria Bellou. Things that today no one can even dream of..."

How the body is depicted on the streets and museums of Athens - From the statue of the goddess Athena to Pablo Picasso – Kathimerini [in Greek]

The ending of Ye Olde Days of Olde – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Atlantans recall the ritual of the morning paper as the AJC prepares to end its print edition, residents reflect on the traditions and treasured moments it inspired.

Before the internet, the printed newspaper was a hub of current news and information — something you could hold and feel in your hands. For Atlantans now in their mid-40s and older, who grew up learning about the world in ink rather than from a screen, the newspaper was far more than a source for headlines..."

The ponderous self-confidence of AI intelligence systems

I use AI systems regularly in website creation. They have provided a faster and more effective help for website building than the simple use of search engines. What took fifteen minutes+ of searching through online pages of directions, technical sources, and user forums suddenly became as fast as the few seconds to type a question and to have the AI respond with the answer, or even whole blocks of corrective code that perfectly fixed the issue.

But, AI systems are personalized for efficiency for interaction with users using a "humanoid" communication style, and a sense of a personality and psychological profile comes out of these interactions. After a year of closely using AI systems for highly detailed question-and-answers over technical information involving making code work correctly, or to correctly configure off the shelf widgets and add ons, one thing has become evident: AI has a misplaced confidence in it's own answers. In this case, the AI will repeatedly repeat its own errors after acknowledging error by way of the user (me) uploading screen shots or sharing an HTTPS session with the AI. It will then produce an answer which acknowledges the previous error, provide remedies, but then begins the cycle over again when I begin working on the material from a different angle, the AI repeats the wrong answers again, no longer "remembering" that its solution was proven wrong.

The issue of "self-confidence" comes out in the boiler-plate answers which begin with:

"Here is EXACTLY where the problem is hidden" - this turns out to have no bearing on the matter. I provide the evidence this is the case, the AI responds:

"Understood — and based on what you are seeing, I now know exactly what is happening." – The AI then tells me I have changed an external source code that is causing the problem. I have not actually done so and then provide the evidence of showing default settings still in place. The AI backs off a little bit in searching for the problem source, saying:

"This is the most likely place [where the error is]" – it does not solve the issue. I provide further info, trying to help the AI look beyond where it has already not found (though it "thought" it had) the error. It responds:

"Great — this detail changes everything and now we can pinpoint the cause with 99% certainty." It does not find the problem. I "show" the AI the continuing issue with screenshots and HTTPS. It responds:

"Ah — now it’s 100% clear what’s happening."The new explanation and help doesn't solve the issue. I provide more info. Then:

"Got it — and now that we can see [description of problem] that tells us exactly what is happening." The problem area is still not identified correctly, we're still adjusting fringe items that doesn't solve the actual problem.

The use of the word "exactly" isn't so much that the AI is misusing the word as it suggests solutions, but rather it is packaging a response in promotional language to instill confidence in the user. Though this seems like a "human" effort at salesmanship ("we have exactly what you want!" is an ageless promotional claim), it actually isn't since the solution following the claim of "exactly" is so quickly proving to be repeatedly false. This is instead an obvious AI programming problem. Apparently meant to comfort the human user who is enquiring for a solution (and enduring mishaps), the language introducing the (useless) answers are being placed at the beginning of the answer to make the user happy as they proceed to implement the solution. But, a human, having failed so many times with "wrong answers" following the announcement of "exactness" would stop making the claim and would lower the expectation of the listener to a more modest "let's try this..." Continuing this false confidence in a repeating identical scenario is the hallmark of a script being executed by a machine.

The Ghost Artists 1952 - why not an exhibition?

GUT BACTERIA

Simple treatment for Parkinsons? – Science Alert

CANCER

Reviving "exhausted" T cells to fight back again cancer – Sci Tech Daily

DIGITAL WORRY

Data Breaches galore: Learn if your email is turning up in pirated lists of compromised data at Have I Been Pwned

Yikes! – Car and Driver

Hyundai is warning customers of a data breach that resulted in the personal data of up to 2.7 million customers being leaked..... includes customer names, driver's license numbers, and social security numbers. The leak reportedly took place back in February..."

UH OH

The Micro-Plastics Quiz – Wall Street Journal

The preponderance of plastic in some foods and drinks is well beyond past estimates, especially in regards to canned seafood from the West Coast.

THE MIND

How conspiratorial thinking stretches back to the Rome Republic and ancient Greece

Story at Washington Post

The tendency to believe conspiracy theories is closely associated with the paranoia that historian Richard Hofstadter anatomized as an essential current of American political thought.... The United States was birthed with conspiracies in mind, says Keeley [Brian Keeley, professor of philosophy at Pitzer College]. "Just read the Declaration of Independence," he says. "That long list of things that King George and Britain were up to, a lot of those were conspiracy theories."

Original page June 2, 2026