Be Forewarned!

We may have good enough reason
to doubt that human intelligence is
well enough developed in the greater
global population to be assured that
it has reached the limits of its potential
in fact has faltered and declined leaving
the vast majority as dregs of intelligent
and rational will, yet the arrival of 
artificial intelligence to intercede in 
decision-making in ways large and small
quotidian and quaint; severely disruptive
and with far-flung consequences seems
no longer to hover on the far horizon. 
Its presence, subtle but ubiquitous 
has the obvious potential of eroding 
the grey matter skulking in the craniums 
of those more than willing to surrender 
their resolve to that of a supranatural 
force of human ingenuity. But for others
the cumulative effect of reliance on such
an artificial agency for simple decisions
wrenches them from the fallacy that we
remain masters in our own house. It
is quite demoralizing, as a perfect
little example of the innocuous but
telling presence of pervasive AI, that
my new and technologically advanced
washing machine persists in ignoring
and over-riding my deliberate choices
presumptuously reverting to its own
against my better informed judgement.