Jarvis Coffin: Off the Highway Artificial intelligence – Monadnock Ledger Transcript

Jarvis Coffin COURTESY PHOTO

My Apple Watch changed its face again this morning to show me GMT.

I have never known a moodier instrument. My preferred choice is a forest green analog face that Apple designers callMetropolitan, but regularly the watch dumps it for something else.Photos are a favorite. I will retrieve the watch in the morning from where it has beenrecharging and gone will be my Metropolitan look, replaced by scrolling pictures of the family.

Can you blame me for wondering if this is how it entertains itself through the drearynight while feeding by looking at family pictures andkeeping up withwhatever else I snapped during the day?Some of what I shoot is incidental over the weekend, for instance,bar codes, wine labels, a pair of mittens left behindby agrandchild(er by me).I suppose, for an interested watch with time on its hands, those thingsreveal what it may have missedbeingtucked under a shirt sleeve: what I workedon, what we had to drink, who came to visit,etc.

Today, evidence of cabin fever. The watchseems to wanta change of scene, hinting atGMT.No.Sorry.

I had to give bad news to another device this morning that was trying to offer help with a financial software package thathad gonethrough an update and deleted an important account. I got a barrage of questions from thechatbot and numerous suggestions,unfortunately,allof them missing the point. I could feel its pain passingme to a human,though it followed up by gamely asking how well it had addressed my concerns.

Not well. To begin with, I responded, you did not solve the problem. You are very quick,very fast,but in a way that peppers me withincorrectpossibilities.You should listen more. I can be that waymyself.I understand.I can turn out answers with the best of them.

I have had bosses, teachers, family heck, about everybody hold up their hand against me in mid-sentence to say, Stop! Listen! You need some of that drummed into you. So, overall, five out of 10, since you asked. And the five isfor being availablein oneminuteinstead of 45 compared to your human counterparts, who are never as eager to help, I admit, which istheworryingthing.You will get better at it, I know.But them?What is the future?

I brought out the snowshoes this morning and trudged through the woods withHuckleberry. We had about eight inches overnight.The puppy had to bound his way around,whichwasmarvelous for expending energy.He is crashed on the couch next to me.

The woodsarea make-believe image of white.Narnia and Zhivago rolled into one. I expect a faun to step into a clearing and play the flute.The hemlocks swing their branchesslowlyback and forth, lumberingtobucksomeofthesnow weight, which makes thewires to the cabin shudder every time abreezesworth falls on them.Iamholdingmy breath the power does not go out, as it has in the neighborhood according toScott, who plows the driveway.

Amazon Alexa saysverycoldnights again for the next few days, confirmed byWeather Live,my weather app.When Huckleberryrecovers we will fetcha couple of armloads of wood to add to the pile.

I willalsoput sand on the walk, which I shoveled earlier. It isbeginning tofreeze.

Ineed todrive stakes in the ground to mark the well cap for the plow, as Scott suggested.

I should sweep around the wood stove.

I plan to be back here above the garage again tomorrowto write.

The future?Therewillstillbetasksavailable tousafterAI hasitunder control. I feel confident about thatat the end of a dirt road.There is noreplacingthatI have towalkthe dog, shovel, carry wood,drive plow stakes,sweepor my choice to write.

Thehemlocks? Theymerelywait for spring.

Jarvis Coffin writes fiction and essays on rural life. He is a retired media and advertising sales executive, and former chef/owner, with his wife, of New Hampshires oldest inn, the Hancock Inn.Reach him at huntspond@icloud.com, and keep up with all his musings atpostcard-from-monadnock.ghost.io.

Read the original here:

Jarvis Coffin: Off the Highway Artificial intelligence - Monadnock Ledger Transcript