On AI

So I am not the type of person who gets excited about new technology. All that often. I tend believe that the techno-optimist approach to engineering our way out of extinction is folly and based on some deep misunderstandings about energy, ecological and epistemology. The basic equation is, every new technology that gives humans a competitive advantage over natural forces creates negative externalities and that civilization is ultimately a mad scramble to fix the problems that its very existence, creates.

AI is no different. We are promised such a great leap in technical efficiencies that we will finally totally and completely untether ourselves from dependence on things like energy scarcity or pesky biophysical limits when really we are just guzzling more and more energy to chase after a future that’ll never come.

I’m a bit of a Luddite that way.

That being said, I recently stumbled onto an AI chat bot called FieldLark, developed by the executive editor of Acres USA and… wow… am I surprised. This feels like the first wholesome use of the technology to date. It gave me really practical information and viewed its responses through the lenses of ecology first. I asked it about the regenerative farm that my wife and I are going to start in Virginia. It gave me accurate, ecotype specific recommendations for plantings that aligned with my goals and legitimate organizations that could help me further and possibly offer cost sharing opportunities. I hope you all try it and find it as valuable as I have