Tags
algorithm, coffee, email ads, George Harrison, George Herbert, George Patton, Lord Byron, poetry, rant, slogan
“Let me tell you about an email that arrived yesterday,” Ms. Anne began. We were at the morning lull at the coffee club, the space between the late breakfast and the early lunch. Usually I checked the tables while she went to her office to do whatever she did there. This morning she was talkative.
“An email offered to sell me different volumes of poetry and the connection between the books was the first name George. Now I brought it on myself when I showed interest in the sonnets of General George S. Patton. I wanted to see a sample, but I couldn’t find anything under two-thousand dollars then. Now I sometimes receive offers to sell me that ‘rare’ volume of George Patton poems for $1500 or $1200 or even the bargain price of $750. I’ll leave that to the trust fund kids. I was simply curious about what the famous General Patton wrote.”
I nodded, thinking that she would stop, but Ms. Anne seemed encouraged by my nod.
“Still the latest email offered poetry of George Patton and George Herbert and George Harrison and George Gordon, which really made me laugh because the algorithm didn’t understand that George Gordon was part of the birth name of Lord Byron. Simply a collection of Georges. And I have to laugh, especially to think that George Patton and George Herbert would be linked together. After all, George Herbert was a 17th century poet, a mystic, an Anglican priest. George Patton was all that George Herbert was not. And then George Harrison?! I can almost understand Lord Byron somewhat as a bridge between George Herbert and George Patton. Almost, though that is a literary stretch, but George Harrison?
“That’s the problem with algorithms and the current state of artificial intelligence. The numbers crunch. The formula works. The spirit or the soul is missing. That’s like comparing a beginning cello player with Yo-Yo Ma. Nothing is fair or right about that comparison. Nothing is fair or right about trying to sell stuff to people based on an algorithm that reduces people to a query or two.
“We were so right in the sixties with that silly mantra: ‘Human being: Do not bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate.’ Today we need to add, ‘Do not algorithm.’”
Ms. Anne Thrope continued her pseudo-rant while I checked out mentally. Then a customer walked in and we were back to business–and for that I was grateful.