Quote Difference Between Cool and Tool

People riding on a trolley see a restored truck
Watching a Truck from the Trolley During the Reunion

It’s a Long Distance

This is a quote I just found in an article. It’s talking about the current condition of using AI and the likelihood of what it will be useful for in the near future. I was incredibly taken with the quote below. It’s true about any new technology. It especially makes me think of Thomas Edison and the first practical lightbulb. He invented a light that would work, but then had to invent all the infrastructure to get the light to work in everybody’s home. It took so long that people began to think he’d lied. Today looking back and also think we had light as soon as the practical lightbulb was invented, but that’s not how this works, that’s not how any of this works.

But, let’s not forget that there is a huge gap between writing funny instructions for removing food from home electronics and doing scientific research.  In other words, there’s a big difference between being cool and being a tool.

Can ChatGPT—and its successors—go from cool to tool?

The difference between the two constructors being something cool is a toy, showing off, an experiment where a tool is something that is useful and practical and can be put to work. It’s an important difference to bare in mind.

Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help?  Attend one of her programs,  schedule one  yourself,  watch her videos,  listen to her podcast,   look at her photos, and find her  on   Facebook ,   Twitter ,     LinkedIn ,     SlideShare,   and  Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.

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Sarah Uthoff - Trundlebed Tales

Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help? Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, look at her photos, and find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+, LinkedIn , SlideShare, and Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.

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