They didn’t ask us, but they made it. Now we must make it ours. Technology moves forward, we cannot control that. But we can affect the form and future that it moves into.
AI has been conceived of, funded, trained, released, and refined by people who are not us and who do not represent us, and that has left many of us with little interest in its adoption or sympathy for its development. For many, the conversation ends there, and that is fine, we need them. But others of us are attracted to technology like moths to the flame. It is our role to engage with the looming threat and opportunity, and then understand it from the perspective of our communities. That understanding can help translate the technology they are foisting onto us into something that can actually benefit us.
This technology also offers unique opportunities for personal empowerment alongside personal destruction, and it did not come with an instruction manual. We who explore this uncharted territory must find support in one another. It is the kind of alien space whose study requires the grounding tether of other human beings. Many of us have learned to isolate our interests and learn alone, so many of us are surprised by the energy that comes from sharing ideas with one another and the clarity that comes from a group.
Finally, this is not our first ox pull. We have heard about the techno-utopia of next year for generations, and while we will not get the change that they sell us, change will come, and it will be the change that we build. The New England heritage of hardened skepticism toward outsiders telling us what to do and how to live is foundational. Still, those of us with a willingness can explore how these newest and most arcane tools can be put to work for our own people, this time so they can’t soft-lock our tractors or sell our data. Founded in Guilford, Vermont, N.E.R.D.S. was born in the same sort of place and built by the same sort of people it was founded to benefit.
Rural diffusion is about identifying what we cannot control while empowering ourselves with what we can. This is our home, our future — let’s build it with our hands, not get handed what was built.
