Tag Archives: wired magazine

3K310: The Panic Cycle

“All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

The world is a abuzz with what to do with AI, ChatGPT and other Large Language Models.  The spectrum of response is wide and has extremes on both ends.  Wired magazine recently published the seven phases of the Tech Panic Cycle, which they believe is ignited at the beginning of every new technology.  This look familiar?

  1. Don’t bother me with this nonsense.  It will never work.
  2. OK, it is happening, but it’s dangerous, ’cause it doesn’t work well.
  3. Wait, it works too well.  We need to hobble it. Do something!
  4. This stuff is so powerful that it’s not fair to those without access to it.
  5. Now it is everywhere, and there is no way to escape it. Not fair.
  6. I am going to give it up, for a month.
  7. Let’s focus on the real problem – which is the next current thing.

It will be fascinating to see where and when we are in the cycle with AI.  I’ve certainly heard stages 1-4 already and in a hot second I think we will be in stage 5. There isn’t anything for us to do about this other than to be aware of the cycles we experience and know when and where we are so that we know how to respond or even be one who shapes the response of others.

There is only one cycle we can really count on that is the God created this world and each of us.  He sent His Son to redeem us and He will come again to take us home with Him.  Imagine we could be so locked in on this that the rest of it really didn’t matter.  No, we can’t extract ourselves from the world we live in, but because of the promise and hope of God’s cycle, there needn’t be any panic with any of the unknowns and new that get thrown at us.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 13:12 (New Living Translation)