What I learned from 8 days without the internet

It's been a crash course on the limits of globalism and AI.

So, I spent eight days without my internet connection that’s provided by a company recently acquired by a British multinational-type company. I spent eight days talking to tech support workers in the Philippines about procuring a tech worker dispatching from a building less than a half mile from my residence.

I literally watched their trucks drive by daily, and I started to consider hanging out on the corner to try to flag one down. Go globalism!

Fortunately, the folks in the Philippines were professional and empathetic – even going beyond the obviously standard apology script provided by their training manual. I came to enjoy our interactions; these folks eased my tremendous frustration as best they could; and like me, these folks are just pawns in the globalists’ game.

Like all negative life experiences, this situation came with some revelations.

First, whoever thought we should sell our infrastructure to multinational overseas companies and institutional investors is a MORON – or more likely a collective of greedy morons. We will be regretting this action for decades and goodness knows how we will ultimately fix this error.

Things like electricity, the internet and the airwaves are ours as Americans; access should be overseen by Americans; and should profit be derived from such, the profit should stay in America. From a financial standpoint, from a security standpoint, from a common-sense standpoint – controlling our own infrastructure seems like a DUH.

Further, free market principles lose their efficacy in a market controlled by interests that are distant from consumers.

Second, I learned that a little time without the internet would be good for all of us. I use an old phone with a dysfunctional battery and a low-budget data plan, so it wasn’t much of a replacement for internet access through my laptop. Except for missing my readers and my blog, going without the internet was kind of nice.

I don’t have cable TV and found myself listening to the radio more, much like I used to before the internet and cell phones started gobbling up our time. Sadly, my favorite radio station will be closing at the end of the year, so the timing allowed me to spend more time than usual with DJ’s and music dear to my heart.

Last, my numerous calls with tech and customer support affirmed my belief that AI still has a long way to go before it’s truly helpful. I have serious doubts about AI’s capacity to better the human condition across the board, and I think it’s being oversold to over-inflate its potential market value.

I see AI being useful in certain contexts, like scanning the universe for signs of intelligent life. I also see AI being useful for monitoring, manipulating, and controlling people; and it should be seriously regulated because of that potential.

I have a hard time envisioning AI as something that will improve my quality of life on a daily basis, though, and this situation strengthened that belief. AI didn’t make my service restoration process less time-consuming or less frustrating. If anything, AI made it worse.

For example, everything AI was supposedly doing while I was on hold had to be done again when I finally got to speak to a human. The worst, though, was when I chose the callback option one time, rather than waiting on hold, and the AI had the wrong company call me back. Go AI!

Dear Readers:

Eight days without the internet has left me with thousands of words in blog posts that I’m not sure I like anymore. Blogging is so time sensitive, but I’ll figure out if any of it can be recycled into something new to share shortly. Be well!