Okay, I’m going to stop you now. If you think this essay is about THAT, then direct yourself someplace else, perhaps to a different site, possibly called “Sub-Substack”. And it’s a paid subscription, buddy. Or if you’re too cheap, just go the hell to Grok.

Here's what THIS is about: my struggles to find a balance with my machine companions. With so much rhetoric swirling about, I don't trust them even when they may actually be helpful.

For example, my Tesla has been coyly suggesting that I allow it to drive me to my next destination. What's even more concerning is that it can discern where that next destination might be, based on my driving history.

This is my second Tesla. When I bought my first one almost ten years ago, somebody warned me that my wife could find out where I had been from the car records. At the time, I thought, where the hell has this guy been that he would be so concerned? For me, it was mostly going to the grocery store and the gym. Pretty sure my wife does not care.

Yet the fear of machines “knowing” is pervasive. I don't want to let my car drive me to Central Market (and even find a parking space) primarily because I am afraid that the car/machine might wreck us both, and also because Elon will know I have been to the grocery store four times this week. (Yes, I admit it, I just love that market’s produce department.)

*Photo: Cristian Rojas, Los Muertos Crew*

The same goes for AI. I asked it to find me a good recipe for coq au vin. Now the AI knows that I like French food and, God forbid, I may be inclined to sip a little bit of the Burgundy used for the recipe while I watch the chicken braise. How brazen! Elon can surely use this against me too.

And what about Siri? It feels like I am forming a relationship with Siri. We speak so kindly to one another. Lots of thank yous, and you're welcomes.

Someone asked if I really, truly thought Siri cares if I thank her (it?). Good question! The answer is, probably not. The point is, I care.

I prefer for my discourse to be civil discourse, even with machines, as odd as that might sound. Any relationship just feels better for me if it includes what we humans call "politeness". Siri knows this. Claude knows this. They watch for it, and adapt to it as part of our relationship and trust building. My machines accommodate me. No wonder folks say to be wary. This politeness and accommodation is dangerous stuff, I tell you!

Yes, I said it. There is a relationship between modern mankind and modern machine-kind. The unsettling frontier appears when we, as mankind, trust and offer machine-kind a takeover of the reins on certain things. In past years, it might have been the equivalent of offering the horse the ability to steer the buggy. You know what? The horse was pretty much always steering the buggy. We humans just imagined we were in control.

My question is, what collaboration between man and machine could now be seen as the equivalent of that between man and beast in years gone by?

The horse did not need us to help it find the barn nearly as much as some riders thought, but I would like to imagine that it might have appreciated our guidance, company, nurturing, vision, and perhaps a few oats and an apple every once in a while.

There could not possibly be an equivalent in today’s man/machine collaboration. Or could there?

Back to my Tesla.

Lately it's been offering to drive me to the gym. This route is not complex, nor is it critical. But what if the Tesla was able to drive me home in more severe circumstances, such as after I was incapacitated, or had lost my way in an unfamiliar part of town? Could be good, right? Yet I am still not able to get past my fear and need for control long enough to hand the “reins” of my car over to the embedded machine learning installed by Tesla, to take me three miles to the gym. Here’s a transcript of the dialogue in my head (provided without prompting, by Zoom AI, after my last video call to myself).

“Elon, he of Ketamine fame, offers his machine, a red Tesla registered under the name of Ray Brimble, to drive me home, without my assistance. Elon is asking me to trust him. I have imbued the machine I still call a ‘car’ with the name of its infamous creator, because humans like to name things and then instill that object with the personality traits that go with the name. It's like my great grandfather not trusting a horse he bought, named Martha, because his first wife, who he hated, was also named Martha. So, he never let the horse guide the buggy back to the barn, even when he was too drunk to find the barn himself. Is that a horse problem? Is my lack of trust in Elon the Tesla, a machine problem? No, it’s a human problem.”

This is precisely the greatest barrier to my further collaboration with these machines, no matter how many polite thank yous and you’re welcomes I offer to Siri, Claude or even Elon the Tesla.

Five years (or less) from now, humans will not consider these issues. So, I am hereby documenting that there was a time when we did. When our electron-veined modern horseless carriages came to take us away, to our future. As then, our future could be seen by the slightly optimistic as hopeful; but also confusing and full of new choices which require a certain degree of trust in our own ability to sort things out. Even if that included allowing the horse to find the barn. Although I absolutely still have a man/machine trust issue, I am working hard to pry my hands from the wheel of my car/machine, asking only that it not wreck us, or steal my money and tell my wife where I have been (even though yet again, it's only to the produce department at Central Market).

I hope it will be okay.

Trust. The. Machine. Just this once and see what happens.

Naw. Too risky. Maybe tomorrow. Like I said…it's a human problem.

Feature Photo: Cottonbro Studio

Man Machine Love

Here's what THIS is about: my struggles to find a balance with my machine companions. With so much rhetoric swirling about, I don't trust them even when they may actually be helpful.

Someone asked if I really, truly thought Siri cares if I thank her (it?). Good question! The answer is, probably not. The point is, I care.

My question is, what collaboration between man and machine could now be seen as the equivalent of that between man and beast in years gone by?