Dogs, smartphones, AI and remaining human

Dog walkers are very visible from our first-floor window: Dachshunds and Alsatians, rehomed greyhounds, many with very mixed parentage, but their walkers are more interesting!

Some allow dogs to spend time sniffing their social media, others only permit brief stops, and assertive people press on regardless.

Lucky dogs, joining the parkrun, are trusted without a lead at all!

When dog walkers pass each other, the dogs do their best to communicate.

Occasionally, the owners also chat.

A doggie column seemed appropriate after mentioning Larry the Downing Street cat and Tigger, our own moggie.

Cats don't go "walkies", though Tigger did follow us sometimes on evening strolls which was very unusual feline behaviour, not walking alongside but dodging around gardens, hiding with his tabby camouflage when dogs went by.

Previously a stray, he knew where meals came from so always turned up back at home!

Some people prefer to take a smartphone for a walk.

Their eyes are glued to the screen but generally avoid collisions; smartphones must have proximity detectors!

Inviting people to talk is interesting; a few stop for a brief conversation.

Longer discussions reveal that many feel a lack of connection with real people, with too many preoccupied with what they are doing, as people often are.

Some are open to longer conversations.

As we rightly worry about world affairs, not least the consequences of the US election, closer to home we are losing contact with our basic humanity.

Wildlife programmes show that some species are loners, but most gather into herds, packs or whatever collective word is used, which is also our own human instinct.

We need groups, gangs or teams of people to run railways, build houses, provide shops and most everything.

Even growing vegetables and brewing beer are now corporate enterprises, though allotments and homebrew do have solitary participants!

Mental health is a growing concern, and that itself needs teams to solve issues.

Too many people feel isolated and alone in an otherwise crowded and busy world.

The shop assistant is not a computer - well, not yet for most of us!

Banks have shut down because nobody went in person as transactions are made "online".

Email is superseding the postal service.

We worry about artificial intelligence taking over.

It is not AI taking over, it is us, "we the people", giving up, allowing smartphones and the internet to do everything.

The cart is before the horse when the tool is controlling its operator.

Smartphones, computers, artificial intelligence and wonderful software are just tools to be used!

When AI finally does become better and cleverer than we are, we need to remember it is really our world.

Many believe God or Allah put us on it.

"We, the people" took over when the dinosaurs gave up.

We would fight any other species which tries to force us into submission, as many sci-fi movies imagine.

Stories go back to 1895 when H G Wells wrote "The War of the Worlds", in which the invaders are finally killed by diseases against which they had no immunity; humanity was saved by bacteria, the least of the planet's creatures!

It is only we, the people, who can overcome social media, smartphones and data hubs.

Maybe the less clever will prevent the brilliant people from drowning us in this technology.

Our simplest neighbours might be the ones to save us!