I was thinking about something the other day. The entirety of my writing career hasn’t really been about educating people—although I’d like to think that occasionally some people have learned something useful from my words. Being a writer of fiction and poetry, especially, is more about shifting how someone feels.
It’s about creating that magical bridge between the fluidity of their minds and the static words on the paper (or screen), a connection where a certain alchemy takes place. I’ve noticed this sacred alchemy happen within myself when I read an author I really enjoy. If I’m feeling down sometimes words lift my mood, if I’m feeling “stuck” in life words can sometimes open up my mind’s eye to an invaluable “a-ha moment”, sometimes the words are impactful in some hard-to-describe ethereal way and they give me goosebumps.
"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create." - Leonard I. Sweet
I hope that somewhere along the line in these last thirty-four years of writing something I’ve written has had this kind of impact on you. I think this is the goal that all of us writers share and strive for. In the end we’re all just really trying to shift readers’ energy, or feelings, one way or another.
Something I read last week has made me feel the familiar pangs of melancholy. It’s been forecasted that the mass market for most purely human creative content will be fading away within the next couple of years. It’s predicted that most YouTube channels will increasingly shift to content created, at least partially, by AI within the next three years. I see most creative professions changing drastically within the next decade. Inevitably, the audiences will grow smaller for words written solely by a human as this kind of writing becomes even more of a niche than a necessity.
Each new technological wave we experience as humans is a double-edged sword. It’s as if we must trade away certain things that made us, in order to gain others that will help to usher us to our next phase. Is it worth it? Is it ultimately good or bad? I guess that is always the existential question.
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" by Eleanor Roosevelt
With the internet we gave up our privacy for convenience. With social media we surrendered many of our deep, social connections for shallower connections with a greater number of people. With AI it will likely be most of our professions that we’re surrendering. This will be infinitesimally more complex for us to navigate because, historically, so much of our self-worth is tied up in our professions. All of us, sooner or later, will have to face the realization that how we make our living doesn't define us and learn how best to deal with it.
Trying to predict the future is like looking out a frosted window pane. Shapes are easy to make out but finer details aren’t always as visible. I decided long ago that I’ll continue to write as long as people are willing to read my words and for as long as I think my words have the ability to shift how people feel.
I’m thrilled to have been born when I was. As a member of Generation X, I got to experience the world long before computers and technology were so prevalent in our daily lives. I see our generation as the bridge between the old world and the new. Hopefully our unique position in time and perspective will give us some value.
If one day it all this ends I’ll adopt the attitude of being happy it happened instead of merely being sad it’s ending. Whether it was just good luck, good timing, or good karma—I’m profoundly grateful for the rare opportunity I’ve been afforded to write, and occasionally shift energy, for over the last thirty plus years. I’m looking to our horizon with much more optimism than trepidation. I’m seeing many hints that the things we’ll gain could be greater than what we’re giving up but time will be the judge of that. If it all goes the right way we'll be moving away from a world of scarcity to one of almost unimaginable abundance.
Life is about new chapters. For now I’ll trudge on, continuing to enjoy each day I get to open the laptop and bang on these keys. Still, I'd be lying if I said it won't make me sad to see a future where all of this goes the way of the horse and buggy. It’s the strangest of new worlds we’re stepping into but, as we humans always do, we’ll figure things out as we go along.
The next decade of change will create a world almost unrecognizable to the one we live in today. Hang on and find ways in which you can ground yourselves because it will be a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions. This is a wonderful and beautiful life. It's important that we get this right. Perhaps the best legacy to leave is a future that our ancestors will be thank us for. I still think we live in the most exciting age ever. In many ways we’ll have such a distinct advantage, you and I, because we’ll be the last of the analogs.
THE LAST OF THE ANALOGS
The wise are awakening to realize the world is outpacing our ability to imagine it.
There’s no turning back now, we’re nearly on the precipice, almost obsolete.
Until then we should relish in the final moments of our spectacular imperfections.
We are the last of the analogs. We’ve played games with misfits, our language dangerously flawed, a breeding ground for misunderstanding yet it catalogues each of our unrealistic dreams, illogical loves, silly pet peeves, and every f*cking burden.
Transistor meet the neuron.
We are the last to know what it feels like to have private thoughts, not to have chips in our brains, algorithms filtering out our ticks and our shame, the last to truly know what it’s like to feel pain.
You and I, WE ARE the last of the analogs.
EVW
All for now. Thanks for reading.
