Welcome to the podcast. I'm too old for this where we're asking the uncomfortable, inspiring and frequently asked questions of people who've truly seen it all. I'm Cath, your guide to explore the realities of getting older, with open conversations, no taboos, and a good dose of humor.
What's my four year old grandson? What's his job going to be when he's 54 he probably won't have one get up in the morning, generate something, and it'll happen. It'll do his job for him, and he'll just sit back and relax.
Artificial intelligence or AI is almost on our doorstep. Cars are now electric, and the matrix feels more like reality than fiction. So what does the future look like when we've lived through the past, present and future is the best truly it to come Joining me is Rob, our lively, 75 year old with plenty of ideas about what's ahead, and Veena, who, at 90 is always looking forward and never slowing down. So when you were young, what was technology like? If there was any at all? Of course. Well, just radio, just radio, no TV. Oh, radio, yes. Radio, not television. We're pre TV,no electric fridge. Wow. We had a fridge.
Technology was, was dreamt about, yeah, yeah. And when I was a kid, I had comics, comic books, and I was going to go to school on a jet pack. Yeah, I was going to write a school on a jet pack with all my friend, Highway in the sky. Astro Boy never happened. Astro Boy never happened. But that sort of technology was in the imagination of other people. And now, of course, a lot of it's come into reality. And that's, that's the scary bit, and the time that it's taken, the lack of time that it's taken for that sort of imagined technology to become, yeah, if you think about landing on the moon, which was what late 60s to now, wow, how things have changed.
There are people alive today who only just, you know, wore us witness flying. I mean, if you're 100 and something wouldn't amaze me, yeah, well, if you didn't have electricity, you said, Van
Oh, we had electricity. We didn't have fridges here.
Toss it petrol.
Oh, that's right, I remember those petrol fridges. And does it make you nervous now? Are you using technology much.
I do? Yeah. I mean, I've got a computer, a printer, I skype, and I've used technology to the level that I feel I need to. I don't go and learn things I don't want to know about. So if I decide I want to know how to do something. I will learn how to do it. Stop there. Yeah, my, my not already a fear. I guess it is a fear is for my grandchildren. I've got three grandchildren, approximately two, four and six years of age, and you think you know, what are they going to be doing in 5060, years time, are they going to have, you know, things implanted in their heads? Well, they might, yeah, just become automata.
My mum's biggest worry at, funnily enough, with technology, I may as well bring her into it is, because she's in between your ages. Is the banking online, things like that really worry her, and scamming and being older and not knowing when if she's missing something. Do you feel like that?
Not in the banking yet. I do it many things. For example, I can't buy anything online. I just can't I don't like I think it's, I don't think he's coming right? It's too big, too small. And everybody doesn't say it's fantastic. Well, to me,
I do buy a lot, do you? And you feel confident doing it? Yeah, you get to know certain companies, certain processes that you are comfortable with. Yeah, every now and again, if you find something, oh, I really like that. And it's a surprise company. You'd never heard of them before. Yeah, you're best to look into it a little bit, do a bit of investigation. But I've got a little trade going because, but I actually trade Well, I buy things for other people. If somebody comes out, I really want to, I know a whiteboard for my ruler. You go to the computer, there's hundreds of whiteboards, so you're the third party. I buy them, I buy them, and nobody pays until it's in their hands. When you've got it, you pay me, and that's it. I think you should be putting a commission on that. Well, no, no.
Well, I think I'm ready to use we've got a business opportunity going, man, maybe you need let me know. And.
You know, that doesn't frighten me, does AI frighten you? Yes, AI frightens me. Because it can be very, very good, and it can also be very, very, I think, evil, yeah, yeah. And you don't always know the difference. That's the I mean, I don't know enough about it, I have to say, but I'm, I'm told that in things like medical research and, yeah, it's doing wonderful work, yeah? Speeding up research like you wouldn't believe. But there are some evil parts of it, including the scammers. I mean, the scammers are into AI, yeah, now, and you just can't tell the difference.
I was just hearing today, actually, about music that's generated by AI, and you don't even know it's AI, and they create all bad names and all crazy things. So, I mean, people are created by AI. I mean, you can go onto a website and you can watch, you know, a whole drama of people, and there's nobody there. Sounds like it's cheap to produce.
Well, it is. You don't pay any talent. Yes, do a few drawings, and they.to Dot, sort of line drawings, and then they fill themselves in a form of character. And then the characters go off and act to play. And that's it, they and it sounds crazy, but it's got to the stage. Now, almost obviously there is a human input, but it's quite minimal. Beyond that human input, it'll do itself. Yeah.
And how do you feel then, about if we were, because we've been talking about technology that helps people, either at home or in some facilities, how do you feel about talking to someone who is a AI generated person, if we were, you know, helping you, to remind you to get up in the morning, or some of those things does, would you feel I haven't heard about so I'll explain it to artificial intelligence. Yeah, so what? So in in our world, dangerous?
Yeah, I think he's very dangerous. He's he's taking positions of people, and people will be forgotten, because if they use this, what are they to do with the intelligence of a man? Yeah, that is an issue. I mean, like I say, What am I yeah, what's my four year old grandson? Yes, yeah. What's his job going to be when he's 54 he probably won't have one, yeah, if we probably, yeah, there might be a lot of free time.
Yeah. I mean, he will get him in the morning, generate something, and it'll happen. It'll do his job for him, and he'll just sit back and, well, relaxing, I don't know, but that's a that's a theory, that's a feeling, I wonder about loneliness as well. Because do we need other people if we have AI more? So don't we? We will need them more, or we won't need AI people. We'll need real people. So if so, if more than we do now, does it make you feel uncomfortable if you had someone like a pretend person, an AI person, or on the TV telling you to get up in the morning or reminding you to have a shower, because that's actually where it's heading, really.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't need that sort of service, not yet. No, and no, I probably wouldn't ball cut it if it was programmed properly, and he did its job, but he did weigh me at the right time, and he didn't you know, do things I didn't want it to do, and I was in control. Then yes, yeah, different about if you've got control, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
I doubt if you need control, if you can control, yeah, in the long term, there is a risk, yeah, the fear is, you know that how the computer will say no one day, and we'll have to, we'll have to do what Hal tells us to do, yeah, it's exactly who I'm thinking.
That, of course, is a, you know, that's a terrible situation to be in. Yeah, be controlled, but you use things like Skype and zoom. No one talked about it after, yeah, yeah.
You talk about someone need to wake you up in the morning tell you when to have a shower. I mean, I Skyped my kids in the UK, and my son, he's fairly tech savvy, and he'll be sitting talking to me, and suddenly go Siri curtains, yeah, exactly. And the curtains, Siri changed to the channel, and it changed, or the lights come on or go off, or whatever. And he just speaks, he just, and that's been going on to in his house for five, six years.
Yeah, I can see. I mean, we're not there yet in terms of having the technology in, in what you're living in, residential care, for example. But I can see that that will happen. It'll be lovely if you could just say shut the curtains. Theory, yeah, some things looks fine. Like my son goes to his house and he puts the light where he wants the swing pull off from the car, all from his emoji or whatever, yeah, or his voice. Or just his voice.
You can just talk about my grandchild. He's fantastic, and that's a matter of convenience, if anything, when we were becoming lazy, you should have to get up and turn the television role on, General to another. Now, of course, you don't we. I wasn't going to say yourself, but just checking. What would you tell people? Because if you're worried about your grandchildren, which I can understand that completely, would you have any advice to them about the changes in technology, about how they should manage it?
It's difficult. Yeah, difficult because they know about computers and things much more than I do. They haven't been without them. I mean, they haven't been without mobile phones. Yeah, and I think that is a wrong thing to the parents, even very early iPhones and things like that, to a child or four. I can see babies playing already when they come. I mean, it's ridiculous from your bed. I think he's bad for that.
I think there's an issue there. I mean, parents do have a role, and they will have a role in the future, but from the individual's point of view, learn what you need to learn about this stuff and act upon it. Yeah, if you're not certain about anything, whether it's a potential financial scam or whatever, just be wary. Be very, very wary. You've got to where you're becoming or generations in the future of people who can't depend on themselves as much as they or others around them, as much as they used to. They do depend on technology. They depend on machinery. And if you're not at least aware, you don't have to be a whiz kid, a boffin, but you've got to be aware of what you're doing. I mean, scams are, you know, rife. We know that they're coming out every day. I get I get messages from my bank. I get a message from my I've got a computer technician, a tame technician outside who, every now and again, has to come and do something to my computer, and he will send me messages. Look out for this lady scam. It involves so and so and so, and it tells you, you know, never press the plus R button on your keyboard, because that's, that's death, yeah, you know, and you and I've learned that, I've remembered that if anybody ever asked me to do something which I don't believe or trust in, don't do it. Yeah, you've got to learn to be very cautious and very aware. And it's sad, but it's true.
Yeah, we might finish on that kind of not so positive note, but important note as a message really about I would, from my perspective, embracing technology is great, but be cautious while you're doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And one quick thing on the on these financial scams, and it's the archetypal story of the Nigerian prince who ripped somebody off of two I thought I was gonna marry, yeah, who you thought? One of my questions is, and they appear on the news as as a victim. This poor lady, she lost her life saving her. Is she a victim or an idiot, or both, or both? Maybe, yes. Maybe she's a victim because of her own idiocy. But if you, if you, if you just do it, you just allow it to happen, then that's your fault. Yeah? Sorry. It is. They're not that controlling.
You've got some say, Yeah, got it, yeah? I think that. I think that's the message, yeah, yeah. Victim or idiot is the way I often look at these stories, yeah. Oh, we might finish on that. That'll be quite controversial. That can be the tagline for it. Thanks very much, folks. You're welcome. We'll see you next time on I'm too old for this, which is brought to you by Brightwater, creating communities where people thrive, connect and belong. If you'd like to get in touch, contact details are in our show notes.