Dear Editor,

The rapid rise in artifical intelligence (AI) technology has deprived humans of authenticity. More and more people are adapting the inanimate and remote ways of this man-made technology.

The idea of right and wrong has also become plastic and simulated. A man waiting in line at the bank may be about to faint from exhaustion, yet the man ahead of him may insist on “first come first serve”, that’s how it is. A drowning man may be yelling for help, still that sailor passing him by may respond, “Which rule requires anyone to help you?”

Even in our daily interactions, values and ethics have become cursory and automated. Saying “thank you”, for instance, may be no more significant than an indifferent knee-jerk reaction that has been preprogrammed. Smiling at your customers is only useful if it’s good for business; otherwise, businesses owners will blatantly parade their grouchiness in the face of patrons because they think it makes no difference to their trade.

Rules and propriety are about expedience and personal advantage. A man is nice and gives gifts to his boss not because he believes in the value of giving or he thinks his boss deserves gifts, but because it benefits him, the employee.

True goodness has become so outmoded by artificial options that a man who kisses his wife as he goes off to work may just be carrying out a routine task, much like locking his car door.

When morality has become an artificial and robotic function of advantage, it’s not hard to understand how world leaders could shake hands of agreement across the table while aiming missiles at each other.

Homer Sylvester

Elmsford, New York

h2sylvester@gmail.com