The Paradox of Intelligence

I think that there are many benefits to modern day living, not least, the advances in technology to make your life easier.

We recently viewed a house that had a robotic lawn mower with its own little house and I have to say that this sounded like a fab idea, although I would miss the smell of our old petrol mower but not the grass cuttings so much. Perhaps the smell of cut grass would not be as powerful too, which is one of the heady scents of summer. But it's like the lawn mows itself which has to have benefits.

But doesn't technology also make you lazy? I think that there are many superfluous technological advances that really are not necessary and I find these new "conveniences" rather inconvenient. I have often had this feeling in relation to cars as, for me, a car is a vehicle that gets me from A to B. I want it to start, run well, have wipers for when it rains, brakes to stop and lights when it's dark. Knowing how fast you are going and how much fuel you have left are also useful as are the safety features of seatbelts but that is pretty much all I want from a car. Reliability is paramount.

I know that I am rare in this but the new gadgetry that cars now come with I just find frustrating and annoying. There is much to learn about how to access things like the radio and the means to change the clock and I just can't be bothered with it. It's all so complicated and I don't want to learn it. I don't want to engage with my car other than turning it on, maybe twisting the odd knob or two and heading off in it to my destination. Cars offer independence and freedom of spirit, not mentally but in providing you with the means to go about your business without having to wait for someone else to assist you or provide the means. Or that's how I view them anyway.

I feel the same about phones. I like a phone and I have had my eyes opened to the ease with which they can allow you to do things. For example, when I had my own Etsy shop, they were a useful tool to take photos, upload listings, communicate with customers and generally, work efficiently. But they are also a massive distraction with all the things that can be added to them and take some discipline to try and keep from being interrupted by the "dings!" and "beeps!" that announce a new notification. I wouldn't be without a phone in this modern age as it would be a very difficult life without it.

Or would it? In some ways, it would be a lot, lot simpler. If it was just a phone, for example and not an entertainment communication device. However, as it is now the main means of managing day-to-day life and with information being thrust at us with short notice required for comment, if you didn't have a phone, it would be a hindrance to smooth living, for sure.

But sometimes, I want to throw that phone out and this generally happens when it makes me feel and look like I'm thick. I'm not thick. I am articulate and hold a reasonable amount of intelligence, although I will concede to finding physics baffling, especially astro.

One such incidence happened today where I found the relationship I have with my phone severely tested. Today, I sent a message to my mum and I spelt everything correctly in the text. But when I looked back at it, I could see that it had had a word changed and I know for sure that I had not done this myself nor had I spelt it incorrectly.

How had this happened?

It appears that my phone knows how to spell better than me or even that it knows better than me what it is that I am trying to say and can interpret this for me, altering it as it sees fit.

I hate this so much.

It's not that I don't appreciate the thought that has gone into the developer of this software as I can see how it would help others who want to use its predictive powers. I don't though. I use a little known gadget that I have in my possession called my brain and two of its attributes are, one, the ability to spell words and two, the means to proofread what I then proceed to write.

I find this quite patronising really. I wouldn't mind if it did autocorrect bad spelling but it doesn't: it takes words which I have spelt correctly and decides that what I actually meant was something completely different. It changes it to its preferred word in an instant and because I have already moved onto the next word, having checked to see that the message so far is comprehensible, I miss this "correction" and hit "send".

Shortly afterwards, I notice and it dawns on me that to my recipient, I now look like a right chump. More grievous to me is the fact that the message receiver may conclude that I have, in fact, sent this message without checking it over for mistakes, which would very much not be the case.

I care very much about my writing in all its forms and even in texts, I punctuate and present my words diligently and precisely. My teenage son thinks this is mad and a waste of time but I think of writing as one of my strengths and as a result, I want to do it properly; with care and attention, as I would do a craft.

But I am thwarted in this by the presumption of my gadget.

Perhaps I shouldn't care so much but I do. And so we come to the point of my article.

Because I know what you are all thinking: why don't you just turn it off?

And the simple answer to that is that I can't. I don't know how.

So, for all that posturing about my intelligence and how I can master my own language and solely need to use my brain, I am unable to work out how to turn it off. And I have tried.

I have searched through the different menus and settings to try and work it out, disappearing into the labyrinthine list of options to follow to try and reach a solution but with no positive result. All that trying to relieve my frustration has caused more frustration. And anger. And despair.

The irony is not lost on me: that I can't work it out despite being able to do lots of other things in a capable fashion; that the ability to turn off predictive text and autocorrect is completely beyond my reach.

And that is the paradox of my intelligence, at least: there is so much that my intelligence can do and work out and yet so much that baffles it completely. I don't know if I am just a simple soul in this fast-moving modern world or whether there is a process that I am missing in all this that over time, and with practice, will make itself known and I'll wonder what all the frustration was about.

But I doubt it. And so, I think I just have to accept it. I am starting to think that this is going to have to be a necessary part of my existence.

Which is, ultimately, frustrating in itself.