Writing is how we passed information on beyond our lifetimes. Many cultures did it verbally prior to it, but with the advent of writing it became easier. Of course, the ideas that were published made it further than those that did not, and those that controlled what was published controlled the way we read history. That’s pretty well accepted now.

Within that we got biases in what was passed along. It’s unfortunate, it’s true, and it’s unfortunately true that this is human. Even so, since other people with different perspectives could write on the same topic, a critical thinker could compare the ideas and decide on a perspective, or combine the perspectives, or reject perspectives.

In turn, they would write – standing, as Isaac Newton would say, on the shoulders of giants.

Now we have generative artificial intelligence writing things without thought – summarizing ideas based on whatever the owners of the generative artificial intelligences feed them, and they do that with little or no worry of transparency. Say what you want about humanity, we at least acknowledge voids in what was written throughout history.

Generative AI, so far, does not. And the books of history will be rewritten across generations.

We do not think across generations often, and perhaps we should. In the end it’s what we don’t know that gives us the best questions, and technology that only gives us answers is useless in this regard.