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May 01, 2024

Diabolical numbers add up to a surprise total as AI looms large

I hope this has never happened to you. A few weeks ago I was at a local dollar store, picking up a few items. You can find a dollar store in close proximity of most communities. That makes them

I hope this has never happened to you.

A few weeks ago I was at a local dollar store, picking up a few items.

You can find a dollar store in close proximity of most communities. That makes them convenient, and an easy store to get in and out of quickly.

You can also normally find what you are looking for at the dollar store.

But I digress. A few weeks ago I bought cat food, two bags of potato chips and two or three other dollar items. The store clerk on this particular day had a good sense of humor, and a knowledge of the Bible too.

She started giggling after ringing my items up. I realized something was amiss based upon her reaction. In turns out that my total purchase came to $6.66.

Yes 666. The diabolical number the Bible warns us about.

After she started laughing, so did I.

I told her there “must be something evil” in the bag. Maybe it was the cat food. The cat is pretty ill-mannered at times, after all.

I paid with my debit card, and for a second, I was tempted to hit the cancel button on the card reader.

Gosh. What a terrible grand total to pay for such a small bag of snacks and cat food.

So I decided to blame the $6.66 purchase on inflation. It sounded like a good excuse at the time. Had I been thinking, I would have told the store clerk that Bidenomics was to blame. But my mind wasn’t moving fast enough on that particular day to come up with a creative excuse for why my purchase came up to such an odd total.

What do you do? You can’t panic and suddenly cancel your purchase. You pretty much just have to go ahead and pay for it. All six dollars and sixty-six cents of it. And you laugh along with the way with the wise store clerk who has clearly studied her Bible in detail.

Who knows why things happen as they do. Maybe my total on that particular day came to $6.66 for the sole purpose of moving me to write this particular column.

For those haven’t read the good book lately, we are warned in the Book of Revelation that one day a global leader will emerge who will require all to receive a mark in their right hand or forehead in order to buy or sale. And that mark will somehow correspond to the numbers 666.

If you prefer to go the Hollywood route, I would recommend “The Omen” from 1976. The classic supernatural horror film featuring the late Gregory Peck was both creepy and entertaining. In that movie, the kid — who would go on to become the devil in two subsequent sequels — had the numbers 666 under his hair on his head.

•••

Speaking of things that are creepy, let’s talk about artificial intelligence for a second.

Lately the Playstation that is hooked up to the flat screen in the living room has been turning on by itself. Is AI to blame?

Not only does the Playstation come on by itself, but it also ejects whatever disc is inside. All by itself.

Now why in the world would the Playstation 4 just turn itself on for no reason?

Back in the day, I don’t ever remember the Nintendo or even the Atari turning on and off by itself.

So I can only come to one logical conclusion here.

Is AI, the dreaded artificial intelligence we keep reading about, somehow to blame?

A few weeks ago, my sister was talking about how her new washing machine is apparently a smart washer, meaning it can connect to the internet. This isn’t a new development for anyone who has recently bought a new appliance.

Refrigerators, washers, dryers and other household devices now — for some reason — have to be smart devices that require a high-speed broadband connection.

If you are in the market for a new flat screen television right now, good luck in finding one that isn’t a smart TV. From what I can tell they are all smart devices now that prioritize streaming and online connections over the simple joy of just flipping channels.

Don’t you miss the old days of just flipping from one network channel to the next? Now, you are expected to scroll through hundreds of streaming options instead before finally deciding on what to watch — while also hoping it is free and doesn’t require a streaming subscription.

Why must everything be connected? Is it all a part of some grand AI plan to take over our homes?

Up until now, I’ve been largely ignoring all of the AI hysteria. But maybe there is something to this. Maybe lawmakers, Elon Musk and others are concerned about AI for a valid reason.

A few days ago I quipped with Greg Jordan here in the office that AI is to blame for everything. “Skynet has become self-aware,” I told Greg.

Greg responded, “No. It’s HAL.”

If you are stumped at this point, don’t worry. You’ve got to be a little bit of a science fiction nut to know what we were talking about.

HAL was the evil AI supercomputer in “2001 A Space Odyssey” and Skynet is the evil AI that declares war on humanity in the “Terminator” movies.

In both movies, AI is the big bad guy.

Maybe we should take note of these iconic movies of old. Or maybe — just maybe — I’m reading too much into all of this AI stuff.

Perhaps it is simply some type of glitch in the system that causes the Playstation to turn on by itself.

Charles Owens is managing editor at the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at [email protected].

10 a.m., at the Calvin Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Va. Burial will follow at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Va.

11 a.m., at St. Peter Catholic Church in Welch. Entombment will follow at Woodlawn Memorial Park Mausoleum in Bluewell.

1 p.m., at the Memorial Funeral Directory Chapel in Princeton. Burial will follow at Roselawn Cemetery in Princeton.

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