Artificial intelligence versus artificial stupidity

Source Domain: hpr1.com

By Ed Raymond

A mind that snapped, cracked, and popped at one hundred

I wasn’t going to read a long column called “Centenarian: A Diary of a Hundredth Year” by Calvin Tomkins celebrating his birthday on December 17 of 2025 because it was 14 pages of small type in The New Yorker.But, being a compulsive reader, I started it.

He hooked me immediately because his mind was still young and his word selection was enticing — although with a severe case of macular degeneration (he was legally blind and carried a red and white cane to say so), he spent most of his day in a wheelchair, ached from wounds suffered in five falls over the years, listened to books on tapes, used a phone with large numbers he could feel, used a large magnifier to read labels and instructions, and had to be helped on and off the toilet. Besides, he had divorced three wives and his fourth was a book lover who filled all the shelves with books and piled them in tall columns he often stumbled over in the living room.

Tomkins picked out days of the year to write about. He caught my interest on March 29th because he nails Trump to the cross of AS (Artificial Stupidity) instead of AI (Artificial Intelligence).

“Donald Trump has made remarkably effective use of Artificial Stupidity,” he said. “Even Trump can’t possibly believe he can make Canada our 51st state. AS-Artificial Stupidity means deciding to believe something that has no basis in fact, logic, or common sense. I started using the phrase as sort of a joke, but the breakdown of trust in our government and our social institutions which paved the way to Trump’s second term has made it all too serious.”

In his journal dated August 24th, he cracked me up with Trump’s Air Force One trip to heaven: “I dreamed that Trump died and went to heaven, where he immediately set about changing things. He fired a hundred or more of the busier angels and flew into a rage when they paid no attention to him. St….

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