Mental ice age
“Mental istid” (mental ice age) is the name of a song from 1981 by the Swedish punk rock band Ebba Grön. The lyrics are about computers becoming the center of people’s lives.
The song came on when I was at the gym. I couldn’t help but reflect upon how much it resonated with the age of AI we’re living in.
45 years have passed since the song was released. We’ve made enormous progress in technology. At the same time, we’re descending deeper and deeper into a “mental ice age”.
But it’s not so much about the technology itself, is it? AI today is no more evil than computers were back in 1981. But it’s the way we use it, treating it like the almighty Mother.
I can feel it in myself. The ease of just firing up an AI agent instead of actually using my own mind and years of experience. It’s so easy and so available... and it makes me so sad whenever I catch myself doing it, even though I didn’t need to.
Here’s the first part of “Mental istid” by Ebba Grön, freely translated from Swedish, and the word “computer” replaced with “AI”:
The only thing that can be heard
And the only one who disturbs
And the only thing that’s really alive
In my new home
In my new life
She’s the one who makes the rules
She is Mother AI
Mother to us all
The center of this new age