I keep feeling the urge to pen some thoughts, then deciding I have nothing useful to contribute. Especially with AI bots scraping every indexed site for content to feed their bottomless pits, when I do feel like I have something useful to say, intellectual content rather than emotions, I think, why should I share freely when it is going to be taken and monetised without my consent. Such is the world now, where content is valued in such a bizarre way that stops genuine content from being shared freely. Even taxonomists are complaining about AI generated fake photos of species that spread misinformation and make their work harder.

If it’s not already obvious, I am not a fan of AI. And it’s scary to see how quickly and widely it’s been taken up. People around me on public transport, in cafes, using ChatGPT casually to ask sometimes, the most mundane questions. “Where should I visit in XX city?” “What is YY feet in centimetres?” “Who is the president of ZZ country?” Growing up at a time when the library/set of encyclopedia was the source of reliable information, and maturing in the age of Google, I do greatly appreciating the convenience of Google, so perhaps it’s just my resistance to change that is stopping me from jumping on the AI bandwagon. Perhaps, but I honestly do not think AI worth the (environmental) cost. Appropriately used, I can see its value, but the way most people use it, it likely inhibits critical thinking/promotes brain degeneration. Perhaps that is the whole point of its creators, to encourage even less critical thinking among the population when it is more crucial than ever.

It’s not hard to imagine we’re approaching the ‘End Times’, and apocalypse and doom is upon us. Reports of climate change-induced wildfires, floods, droughts all across the world, violence and border conflicts from South America to Southeast Asia, war crimes and crimes against humanity livestreamed with impunity of perpetrators. It does feels like we live in exceptional times, because in no other time on this Earth have we as a global population been so connected, but also because I grew up believing in the fairytale of progress and universal human rights and justice, and my growing awareness of all the wrongs these days makes me feel like this is an exceptional time. Yet perhaps, it is just the collective consciousness now that is exceptional, because natural disasters and wars that inflict greivous harms on humans and non-humans have always occurred, and there is nothing unique about this collective sense of helplessness.

It’s such a struggle to see any hope at all, when Gazans are starved cruelly, Palestinians abused of their dignity, subject to the callous whims of a genocidal supremacist ideology. And worse, seeing people defend the actions of the latter. Everyday, I wake up, and the first thing I do after stopping the alarm is to check Al Jazeera, in the hopes that a miracle has happened and Palestine is free.

Because Palestine being free would mean we are all free. Free of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism. Free from the oppression first inflicted on the world more than half a millenium ago. And perhaps it won’t be in our lifetimes, and things will get much worse, if we descend into the constant armed conflict and insecurity that our forefathers experienced just decades ago, and so many of our contemporaries now. Or perhaps it will be for the better, so we do not live this illusion of safety and security, while others wage wars on our behalf to uphold this broken system, so we do not get to pretend that life is good, while others starve and are displaced.