AE

 There was a lot of discussion around the holiday table this year about AI. Artificial Intelligence, in case your family spent the day singing carols or talking about relationships or recalling happy moments with loved ones over the course of the past year. The culmination of our chat about Artificial Intelligence was a vague unease, but a fascination regarding the future of this new technology. 

Me? Personally I wondered why there wasn't more interest in making the planet a better place rather than forcing Beatles songs into old English. Arthur C Clarke posited that any new technology is indistinguishable from magic, but being the skeptic that I am, I tend to look for the mirrors and strings. 

Which is why I found myself considering how much of a slave I am already to Artificial Intelligence of the most pedestrian kind: I own a watch that counts my steps. I was such a fan that I bought my wife, son and gave one to my mother-in-law for Christmas. Now all of us can obsess on our steps together. That internal competition can sprout wings and become part of our everyday interaction. 

Every day. 

But here's the thing (he said looking for the mirrors and strings): I know that I have been able to walk, run, stumble and ride for miles and miles for years before the advent of this wearable technology. The fact that I am now relying on a number of earth-orbiting satellites to track my whereabouts at any given moment and can tell you with a great degree of certainty how far it is from my front gate to the back yard. Or any of the various and sundry routes that I take in my seemingly never-ending attempt to exert myself. 

There was a time, of course, when I would go outside and run until I was tired, and then stopped. This worked a lot better when I found myself about half as tired as I wanted to be before I turned around. Now with the help of the faintest bit of Artificial Intelligence, I not only know how far I have pushed myself, but I get the cheesy reward of a tiny digital fireworks display along with the words "good job" on my wrist. The ultimate reward being that this machine will then sadistically ratchet up my goal for the following day, so if I'm in need of that twist of dopamine, I'll have to go just a little bit further. 

Artificial Exertion.