By Not Using Gen AI, Am I Burying My Head in the Sand?

Yes — and it looks awesome down here

Ostriches by Eelco Böhtlingk on Unsplash

For 36 years, I’ve been happily clicking things on computer screens.

It started with games, like SimEarth, in which I guided life’s evolution on a macro level and tried to prevent megafires, and Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge, in which I explored fictional lifeforms on another planet. Oh, look, a pulsating blob with tentacles. Click and be eaten.

Screenshot from a walkthrough on YouTube

Six or seven years later, internet phoned home. America Online sent CDs to our mailboxes, and we installed their application and entered our credit cards for a dial-up connection.

A decade after that, I got an office job as a data processor and subsequently had roles as an application tester and designer. This career was entirely based on clicking things on the computer.

Selfie — June 1, 2017 — Coffee at work. See it in context of a broader story.

I’m also a writer, and don’t get me started counting the ways in which writing involves clicking things on a computer. Think of the fact-checks…