Sometimes I haven’t much time to write a blog, like today. Then I wish that someone else would write it or maybe that I had a machine that could do the job for me. As for today, I had the idea to write about Christmas. But what to write that is a little bit original? So much has been written already about Christmas and each year I have already written a blog about Christmas. But then I remembered that a blog machine really exists. Recently, I had read about it in a newspaper. It is called OpenAI. Why not give it a try?
The website of OpenAI was not difficult to find. Here it is: https://openai.com/ It pretends that it can write articles and essays and also, of course, blogs. So, I made an account and logged in. However, my problem to write a blog quickly was not yet solved, for it is not enough to order the website to write a blog as such but it needs a theme to write about. When I wrote that I wanted to have a blog about Christmas, I got a vague text that everybody could write. I didn’t need a “blog machine” for this. I had to specify my question. Then I got an idea. Now a is war going on between Russia and Ukraine, two nations in which Christianity is an important religion. But Christmas is a feast of peace, which is in contradiction to war, even to that extent that warring nations often organise a truce during Christmas. Now it is so that in Ukraine and Russia not Roman Catholicism and Protestantism are the major religions, but Orthodox Christianity is, and Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas not on the 25th of December but on 7 January. But I needed a blog about Christmas and actually the date it is celebrated is irrelevant. Therefore, I ordered the blog machine:
Write a text about Christmas at the frontline between Ukraine and Russia in the war between both countries.
This is what I got (unchanged):
“Christmas at the frontline between Ukraine and Russia in the war between both countries is a somber affair. The trenches are silent, with the only sound coming from the wind and the occasional distant thud of a mortar or the crackle of rifle fire. The bitter cold of winter has settled in and there is no respite from the harsh conditions. This Christmas, there is no festive cheer to be found at the frontline. Instead, there is a grim reminder of the human cost of the war as soldiers from both sides huddle in their trenches, hoping that the fighting will not resume in earnest. For many, this will be the only chance to rest and reflect on the past year, and the suffering it has brought. Though there is no room for celebration in the trenches, the soldiers of both sides still maintain a fragile respect for each other. Small acts of kindness, such as trading Christmas gifts, have been observed on both sides. This serves as a reminder that, despite the conflict, there is still a common humanity that binds us all. Though Christmas at the frontline between Ukraine and Russia may be a solemn affair, it is also a reminder of the courage and resilience of people on both sides. It is a reminder that, even in the darkest of times, hope and compassion can still exist.”
Not bad, isn’t it? Especially the end is realistic. There the text talks about peaceful contacts between soldiers on both sides of the frontline and about trading gifts. Didn’t this also happen here and there along the front during Christmas 1914 in the First World War? Then soldiers on the allied side heard German soldiers sing “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” (Silent night, holy night), while the Germans heard Christmas carols on the allied side. This made the soldiers realize that their enemies were as human as they themselves were and that they had the same feelings and faith. And so the enemies contacted each other, first hesitatingly, but then they left the trenches and talked with each other, and even exchanged little gifts and played football with each other. It was the beginning of an unofficial truce. The army command tried to stop it, but nevertheless here and there along the front the truce lasted up to two weeks. One year later, strict measures were taken to prevent a new truce and during Christmas 1915 it was war “as usual”.
How nice would it be that now in 2022 there would be such an informal truce in the Ukrainian-Russian War and that now it would lead to a real truce and maybe to the end of the war. Wouldn’t it be wonderful?
But I let my imagination run away and actually I am writing not about a Christmas truce but about a blog machine. As you have seen, now there are machines that can free you from the task to write an article or a blog and maybe even a book. So, in case I have no time to write a blog or want to take a day off, I can simply go to the OpenAI website and let it write my blog. Gradually this blog machine will become better and soon you’ll see no difference any longer between a human-written blog and a machine-written blog. How useful would it be for me! But should I be happy with it? For if this trend will go on, soon the machines will outrun the human beings on this earth. They’ll even need no longer an order that tells them what to do. Machines can live their own lives. Then human beings will be superfluous on this earth. They can die out and nobody will miss them. But aren’t we yet already busy working on our own extinction?
Merry Christmas
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