Here's a story - back in the 90s, our grad professors from the Institute of Library Science made us read Toffler - nakakaloka at nakakaiyak. The assignment was given for us to understand the rise and fall of humanity's affair with technology. We were grappling with two things back then, one is the trend of computerizing and automating library operations and functions and two, the development of e-books, blogs, wikis and digital commons. We were afraid. Many librarians were insecure of being supplanted by machines and technology.
Three decades on, the LIS (library and information science) community realized three things: 1) upskilling and learning is lifelong and with tech, it can be complicated, risky but fun; 2) collaboration and community building are tools or systems of survival; 3) no machine or technology can ever replace the human touch and voice.
AI will change how we create but it is still too early to say it will supplant humans. The fear and the insecurity is valid. I am still asking myself how an AI can be cited as reference and source in a research paper.
I remember, one project we had for finals was to create a website for our libraries using HTML. That was in 1997. A lot of things have changed since then but one of the many take aways we took from the learning experience is that, we create the tech and the tech can, to some extent, create in us new ways and pathways of thinking.
Oh, and we love our prof who gave us that activity. She became our professional mentor and to this day, we still touch base on each other's personal and professional lives.
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