AI and I

Disclaimer upfront: unlike the code on this site, this original German text was not created or even improved with the help of AI. (Maybe I should have - I did use AI assistance to translate, though.)

Hello and welcome to my upteenth new blog. Ever since the concept of "blogging" has existed, I have implemented numerous blog projects professionally and in the recreational environment of various clubs, and also ran them for a while. I've also repeatedly tried to start my own blog but never continued it consistently. So now, here's a new attempt - because "why not." Oh no, because AI.

In my work as a Full-Stack Developer with a DevOps background, I am experiencing right now how much AI will change our working world. It can also be observed that this topic, like almost everything in our current social and political environment, is polarizing. There are those doomsday advocates who proclaim the end of work and predict impoverishment, even destitution, but certainly also the dumbing down of people. On the other side are the utopians, who also proclaim the end of work but paint the great liberation and opportunities for self-fulfillment, opportunities for vocations instead of just jobs, onto the canvas of the future.

The truth, as so often, will lie somewhere in between, and because truth is subjective, it will be different for everyone. Or in other words: "AI is here to stay; what it means to you is what you attribute to it." But there's one thing we cannot avoid: engaging with the new technology, truly paying attention to it, and thus giving it meaning - individually for each person.

AI is a hammer

For me, AI is a HAMMER. I mean "hammer awesome" - yes, of course - but above all, it's a tool, and I think like every other "technological revolution" before it, this one will not replace human work, but it will change it. And with change, the past teaches us, it mainly accelerates.

The steam engine brought the railway and the assembly line; the railway and assembly line brought the rhythm, the work rhythm - yes, the temporalization of life - and every further advance in industrialization was more or less the answer to the question: how can we become even more productive, meaning achieve more in less time. Digitization has not completely replaced paper, and where it has, it's only because more data can be stored and, above all, moved in less space. What we process is constantly increasing; we process it in less and less time and, ultimately, with fewer people. Doom or chance?

The danger we already know

What we perceive as "the danger of AI" is not a new danger, but rather the intensification of existing, unresolved social problems and the acceleration of the resulting consequences. Because, as with every crime and also with every non-crime, the decisive question is: Cui bono? Who will be the winners and who will be the losers? And the answer to this question follows from our understanding of society.

In my first post, I won't yet bring out the political cudgel and swing it around (as much as I'd like to). Instead, I'll leave these questions open for now. But whoever thinks coldly and selfishly will be alone and freeze, and whoever is warm and socially minded will warm themselves with others.

What this site is about

Giving back to others is also what this site aims to do. Because personally, I am currently experiencing an explosion in productivity which, in my limited free time, allows me to create this site. The goal is to provide useful little tools, my advice, and gladly also my actions, so that the community, in the spirit of open source, can partake in my output. This is what the acceleration through AI enables me to do.

I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism, but due to my said limited time, I allow myself to be selective and only respond to what I find interesting - highly subjective.

And as a notorious pessimist, I expect nothing from you in person, from all of you, or from society, but I am always happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Peace out Alexander