Congratulations to Hank for winning THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD for her fabulous ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books) !!!
HALLIE EPHRON: Most everyone knows I have a definite familial "through line." My parents were Hollywood screenwriters. My sisters write fiction and movies. I reluctantly succumbed in my 40s and started writing fiction, too.
I also do a lot of teaching, and when I talk to writers about using ChatGPT well, I talk about how concerned we all should be about how it will be putting workers (content creators, in particular) out of work.
The other day, my daughte and I sat down to watch one of my parents' movies: THE DESK SET.
It's a romantic comedy featuring Katharine Hepburn as the head of the research department for a big corporation. Spencer Tracy plays a gruff efficiency expert whose job it is to bring in an enormous computer (think: Mac truck) to take over her (and her co-workers') job.
Needless to say, sparks fly.
I was surprised at how, even then (1957), people understood how computers and AI could end up putting people out of work.
Then I remembered something about my father's misspent youth. Before he got himself thrown out of Cornell, he starred in a college production of THE ADDING MACHINE, a play written in 1923 by Elmer Rice.
My dad plays MR. ZERO, a lowly bean counter at a big company, who discovers (after 25 years at his job) that he will be replaced by an adding machine. And, by the way, his wife is cheating on him.
He snaps and kills his boss. And goes to jail. And gets executed. (Not a happy ending.
Here's a picture from the Cornell alumni magazine showing my dad playing the part...
I'd never put together this early dramatic role in The Adding Machine with The Desk Set screenplay he and my mother wrote thirty years later.
And now writers is struggling with the very same implications of machines replacing people.
I'd never put together this early dramatic role in The Adding Machine with The Desk Set screenplay he and my mother wrote thirty years later.
And now writers is struggling with the very same implications of machines replacing people.
When I teach, we often cover how (and whether) to use generative artificial intelligence. Will a machine have written the next mystery novel you zip through and put the next generation of writers out of work? I wonder what my parents would have had to say on the topic.
Are there any through lines for you and your family, going back to parents and on to offspring? Maybe some political activism? Passion for food or travel? Music or art?? Morphing from generation to generation but still a constant.
Are there any through lines for you and your family, going back to parents and on to offspring? Maybe some political activism? Passion for food or travel? Music or art?? Morphing from generation to generation but still a constant.
This whole issue of machines replacing people is downright scary . . . .
ReplyDeleteNo obvious through lines for our family . . . .
It's happening...
DeleteI hope all of the writers here who had their work stolen by Anthropic filed their claims. Less than $3,000 per work isn’t enough, but it’s something.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a heavy equipment operator - did that lead to me and my sister having Tonkas instead of Barbies, and did they influence me to pursue civil engineering? Maybe. I have a picture of me before I turned two - there was utility construction happening in the street and every day I would march down the sidewalk with my little folding chair and watch.
Later I became a CFO. My mom was a bookkeeper and so was her aunt. When my great-aunt retired in 1969, she was keeping the books for 19 companies belonging to Bill Davidson (who also owned the Detroit Pistons).
Sounds like you definitely inherited the HEAVY EQUIPMENT gene! Pretty powerful combined with what must be a fantastic attention to detail that's so essential for keeping the books.
DeleteLisa, how interesting! Myu father was a heavy equipment operator, too. That isn't a commonality I run into very often. Somewhere I have a picture of my dad and me (at about age 5) standing beside a piece of equipment with tires so large even my dad looked tiny beside them.
DeleteVery cool! My dad worked on the toll road into Chicago, so it was always fun when would drive by that (we never used it - who had money for that?).
DeleteMine must be books and teaching. Everyone in my family reads constantly, including my thirty-something sons and their wives. My parents filled our house with books. Daddy would leap up from the dinner table and bring back a reference volume to answer a child's question.
ReplyDeleteMy father was a high school teacher. My great-aunt was a French teacher (to Hemmingway, no less!) I have taught adults various topics. My g-g-g-grandfather founded Indiana University, and my great-grandfather was the first dean of the IU Medical School.
Bu AI is terrifying and criminal and will have no place in my writing or reading life.
Also, so many congratulations to Hank on her Mary Higgins Clark award win last night!
DeleteYou'd think teaching would be in my genes, too, but looking back there's nary a teacher back there. Though before he got tossed out of Cornell my father claimed he aspired to be a professor (history).
DeleteFounded Indiana University!!! That's very impressive Edith! GO Hoo, Hoo,Hoo Hoosiers!
DeleteHallie, I distrust AI (it IS artificial) and all the TechBros who have no idea of real life. I do not use it knowingly. (Oops-is autocorrect AI? Or just wee gremlins inside our devices?) And Hallie,cThe Desk Set is one of my favourite movies! We watched it a few month ago and I thought is was still SO relevant! My Mom was a registered dietitian. Alas I did not follow those footsteps although I have a great interest in nutrition. She and her parents were great readers and that is certainly a through line. Mom also loved mysteries and science fiction and so do I, they are my two main categories of reading.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! Taste in books... could be another through line. My mother kept a stack of cookbooks at her bedside, along with Agatha Christie. That's pretty spot-on.
DeleteThat's an interesting connection, Hallie. It would fit right in to some of our other discussions here about where ideas come from.
ReplyDeleteAs for machines replacing people, it has happened in farming, manufacturing, transportation and I doubt there is an industry that remains unaffected. But readers will continue to want to read the works of brilliant, imaginative authors. In spite of the creeps having stolen 35 of Jenn's books to train their robot, I will look for her name on the cover and purchase her stories. Will other art forms be safe? Music for instance. I don't know. I believe in my heart that people will still want the real thing.
I think you're right, Judy - I certainly hope so.
DeleteMy youngest son is 35. He is a 3-D animator for film – think not so much cartooning, but making sets and people be where they are not – the movie Midway was one of his. They had fun making all the sailors on the deck be doing something when the ship was about to be bombed – he said “too bad you can’t see each of their faces”. The scene lasted seconds on screen. Now that can be done by AI magic. I shudder for his livelihood.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, in cleaning up (yes still – it goes on forever!) my brother, the packrat has given me a banana box of old pens, pencils and glue to sort through and see what can be saved. So, forget your typewriter, adding machine, calculator, computer or AI genius, do I have the thing for you! Step right up and get an exciting rediscovered tool – made from wood and graphite, only needs a knife occasionally to keep it running – just the thing to think or chew on. I might be rich…
Margo, before your son could do what he does to create crowds from nothing, a friend who is a film art director told me that the crowd scenes for the movie Seabiscuit were made from thousands of rudely painted cardboard figures set in the stands. So, in effect, your son's job made the artists who created such handmade illusions obsolete, too.
DeleteI went to a movie with him one time and he told me that all the 'people' were Q-tips. It was always interesting going with him to hear his criticism of the way and how well the rendition was made. It was a whole new way to enjoy the show. His was all pencil artwork, just sketched on a computer screen.
DeleteMy husband left behind boxes and boxes of the same kind of stuff - drawing stuff, glues, Xacto knives, colored pencils... And of course I haven't yet given or thrown it away. Holding onto the memories.
DeleteI think there is a bit of a wanderlust gene in my family, though it doesn't affect everyone. My dad wanted desperately to escape Zanesville, Ohio, where he grew up, and satisfied that during his time in the military. I think he would have liked to keep exploring more of the world thereafter, but he had married my mother and they had kids right away, so after that he settled in Ohio but at times partly satisfied the urge a bit by working away all week and only being home on the weekends. In my generation, my late brother Don inherited that gene and after the military he lived in various other states (Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming) and then worked on oil rigs in Libya for a time. He married a woman from Oregon and spent his latter days there. And of course, my son is currently living in Japan.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one... hope you inherited the travel gene so you're able to pay visits to where they've moved.
DeleteFirst, I’ve always loved this movie. Second, other than personality traits such as my dad’s need to drive from point A to point B (me too, my mom loved getting off the beaten path). Third, while I use ChatGPT for general research, I abhor the “creative” side. Yes, machines put people out of jobs along the way, but this AI is more scary. And I believe in the movie, Desk Set, Spencer Tracy has sort of a throwaway line after Katharine Hepburn says that machines will replace people (not jobs). I think he says something like “wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
ReplyDeleteThat sounds about right. But there's that wonderful scene where Bunny (KH) bests the machine and the machine goes gaflooey.
Delete... which I think feels like wishful thinking now. Though we are seeing how chatbots seem to make things up. Not a great trait.
DeleteCongratulations Hank! I inherited the love of reading from my mom.
ReplyDeleteOf course you did!! wondering if she liked mysteries
DeleteI adore "Desk Set". It is one of my favorite Tracy/Hepburn movies. The scene on the roof with them having lunch is brilliant. My husband and I were computer programmer/analysts starting back in the early days of tech and continued in that field. While my daughters were drawn to different paths, all the sons-in-law and grandkids are in some techy field.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Hank! I put up a nice post of congrats on my FB page as well!
ReplyDeleteReading is the one passion everyone in my family seems to share.
As for Desk Set, I saw that movie when I was a kid. My mom showed it to me and I loved it.
Not surprised about the reading, Jay. And thanks for posting about Hank's win!
DeleteDesk Set is one of my favorite movies! I have it recorded and never delete it so it is always available to watch.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were both teachers so I was too. Also everyone in our household was addicted to reading, especially mysteries so another gene passed down.
Congratulations to Hank!
Atlanta
Atlanta, yay teachers! Jerry and I are/were both teachers right down to our cores, so it didn't surprise me when my daughter turned out to be really good at it, too. Along with the writing.
DeleteCongratulations, Hank! I inherited my father's love of reading, but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a big IT!
DeleteCongratulations to Hank! (Someone check and see if her feet have touched the ground yet--I'd still be floating!). All of us got the habit of reading the daily paper from my dad, half of us caught the love of reading from my mom. Half of us also inherited my mom and dad's love of gardening. My mom told stories of her grandparents' generation--the siblings would gather with their instruments and make music. It seems to have skipped a couple of generations, but showed up full force in my youngest nephews (and grandnephew).
ReplyDeleteMusic and gardening - that's a great combo.
DeleteCongrats Hank! And Hallie, I love "Desk Set." I think it's time for me to watch it again. I think a movie like that emphasizes the need for humans to CONTROL machines. Of course, guessing AI will control AI pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteBe prepared it's VERY sexist. Although it redeems itself by the end.
DeleteCongratulations, Hank!
ReplyDeleteWe're a military family. My Grandfather was in the Navy in WWII and my Dad served in the Army for 22 years, including 2 tours in Vietnam where he earned the Soldier's Medal, with Valor (yeah - I'm pretty proud of him!). My older brother did ROTC as an undergrad at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and paid back part of his commitment in South Korea. I served for 20 years in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, and my sister's son also did ROTC and served in the Iowa National Guard, including a deployment to Afghanistan. I guess we're pretty green-blooded!
Thanks for your family and your dedication to the military. I am from a military family too.
DeleteMy dad fought (Navy pilot) in WWII serving 20+ years, my husband was ROTC in college, served in Vietnam, then became a NavyJAG Officer in the reserves. My grandmother (my father's mother) received a commendation from Pres. Roosevelt because 5 of her 6 sons signed up for the war (the 6th was only 16 - but he went to sign up and lied about his age and was sent home because the Navy recruiter knew his family!) My brother in law is a retired Navy officer, he publishes the Broadsides Navy cartoons (he's very funny). And our ex-son-in-law is in the AirForce.
We live in a navy town and my high school classmate is the son of the late Admiral Stockdale who was sadly a POW in Vietnam.
Robin just curious about where you served as an Army JAG?
DeleteThanks! But I have to say, Navy Anonymous, "Go Army!" :)
DeleteAs far as where I've served - that's a list! Fort Ord, CA; the Sinai Peninsula; Camps Humphreys and Casey, Republic of Korea; Fort Wainwright, AK; Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD; Fort Leavenworth, KS (a couple of times); the JAG School in Charlottesville, VA; U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill AFB, FL; as an exchange officer with the British Armed Forces in Wiltshire, England; and a couple of tours in the Pentagon, once at Headquarters, Department of the Army, and once at DoD Office of General Counsel. After retiring from active duty, I served as a civilian as the Chief of International Law at U.S. Central Command, also at MacDill. Have our paths crossed?
Robin, that's an amazing story! Thanks for sharing. And, as they say, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE... big time.
DeleteThanks Robin doesnt seem like any crossover. My hub did active shore duty in the 1970 mostly in Southern Calif. Then as a reservist Honolulu, New Orleans, Newport R.I., DC, San Diego....I know Navy ports of call are tough places to hang out. Honolulu was particularly tough. Hahah. I loved growing up in a military family (as a kid and married) I know Julia has often talked about growing up in a military family as well. Go Green and Go Blue as we all have the same mission in the long run!
DeleteI guess I have a through line with your family, Hallie, because THE DESK SET was my favorite Tracy/Hepburn movie long before I met you, and I was in a production of THE ADDING MACHINE in high school. Building that set... oy vey.
ReplyDeleteI've read enough AI generated assignments from my students to be able to recognize the particularly voiceless voice of machine writing. I'm sure a Large Language Model trained on my books (which they HAVE been) could fulfill a prompt of, "Write like Julia Spencer-Fleming." The issue is, AI is not intelligence, it's a probability-prediction machine, and it has no innate creativity. It can copy what its learned, but it can never come up with a new and interesting twist on an old theme.
I predict when the bubble bursts and the hype cools down, AI will prove to be a useful tool that will change/improve the way we work, but not be a wholesale labor-force killer. Like the typewriter, the word processor, and, yes, the Mack truck sized office computer.
Interesting Julia. I remember back in the 70's wondering if computers would take away jobs - which they did, but they've also opened up millions of new jobs in the tech industry. AI has the ability to revolutionize science and medicine.
DeleteThat's amazing, Julia, about our shared experiences with THE DESK SET and THE ADDING MACHINE. And I'm somewhat optimistic about AI, too, since I've been using it a bit lately to get answers to questions that Google alone fumbles.
DeleteCongratulations, Hank!
ReplyDeleteThrough line in my family would be languages. Growing up, I always was fascinated by languages since learning adult sign language, which I now know is American Sign Language. I signed up for lessons online in many languages including Austrian sign language and British sign language. I made the connection with my great grandparents in that they spoke SEVEN languages!
Wow! Seven!!! I am in awe of ASL.
DeleteDiana, I'm always amazed when I hear about people who can speak more than one language but SEVEN!
ReplyDeleteThat's impressive. I'm still trying to master my native language - English.
Huzzah, to Hank! Bet you are on Cloud Nine, my friend.
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea, and I can see it. I definitely my gardening genes from both my grandfathers. Voracious reading from my maternal grandmother, who read two books a day many weeks of her long life until macular degeneration stole that from her. Sewing from two of my aunts who between them could make anything. Three generations of my mom's family served in Foreign Service, traveling all over the world. And we have nurses galore in our family, including my sister, an LPN, and my oldest, who taught nursing for a decade, and who has a Masters in Diabetes Management Education from Columbia.
Maybe if our family wasn't so big it would be harder to see these connections. Which makes your writer family so much more remarkable, Hallie, that all four of you daughters became such prolific wordsmiths.
Karen, So cruel: macular degeneration. My husband's aunt had it and combined with hearing loss she couldn't even listen to audio books. Sounds like you got the caregiving gene.
DeleteYes, and my mother has it now. She has been a prolific reader, but has an advantage her mother never had, an e-reader. She can read enlarged typefaces, and isn't limited to fine print on paper. And there are now exellent meds and modalities that dramatically stall progress of the degeneration.
DeleteTaylor Swift just filed trademark applications to protect her voice and likeness against AI-generated deepfakes. I'm sure lots of artists will follow suit.
ReplyDeleteAs well they should.
DeleteCongrats to Hank! And just wanted to say that Desk Set is one of my all-time favorite movies ever!!!! Katherine Hepburn in this movie reminds me so much of my grandmother. My grandmother was walking reference library ... read every book ever written (at least that was what I thought as a child) and knew more random facts about anything and everything than anyone else I've ever met. And somewhat of a resemblance to Katherine Hepburn as well, which is probably why I love Katherine Hepburn movies in general. But Desk Set was the epitome of her movies that remind me of my grandmother.
ReplyDeleteI agree, The Desk Set is (as they say here in Boston) Wicked smaht. I could do a whole blog on KH's wardrobe. She was quite a clothes horse.
DeleteThe only line I seem to follow is the reading one. I remember my mother taking both my brother and me to the library when I was about 5. As a result, we both started reading at an early age and I was ahead of my classmates when we had to record what we were reading. I always had to have additional pages added to my folder because there weren’t enough lines on the ones we were given to list everything I had read. Many of the other students could barely fill a fraction of one page.
ReplyDeleteAnother trait that I can think of is both my brother and I had inherited the same intellectual curiosity as my mother. She bought us the Encyclopedia Britannica which we used regularly for homework.
My first exposure to mysteries was through an aunt who had a subscription to a mystery of the month type book club. She had a room with shelves of mysteries. I started out with some of her books which had short stories from many of the golden age writers. From there I investigated other works that many of them had written.
My nephew joined his mother’s family business of law. He, his mother, grandfather, uncles, great uncle and other relatives became involved in many different legal areas from judge to professor to corporate and he works as appeals attorney for. the state in which he lives.
intellectual curiosity, love of books - great gifts. (Oh, gosh, remembering BOOK OF THE MONTH...!)
DeleteI am from a family of readers but I am the only one who likes mysteries.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Hank. Well done!!
Oh, thank you everyone! Yes indeed, I am still floating. It is absolutely wonderful in a billion ways! So incredibly thrilled.
ReplyDeleteBelow I will “transcribe “ from memory an actual conversation that happened many many many years ago:
Hallie: but what should we name this blog?
Hank: (thinking) hmmmmm how about Desk Set?
Hallie: (Poker face) Why would you suggest that?
Hank: (clueless) Because it’s my favorite movie of all time! It’s hilarious! It’s Katharine Hepburn as a…
Hallie: I know. My parents wrote it.
Seriously!?!?!?
DeleteThat is a great story !!!
DeleteI recently looked up an small island I had never heard of and wanted to know more about it.
ReplyDeleteThe description was so poorly written in terms of not only grammar, but also sentence structure.The words just didn’t go together. Many of the sentences didn’t make sense because the words were not relevant to each other. It was like two people sitting next to each other who had nothing in common with the other and didn’t even speak the same language.
At the end of the piece was a statement that AI had been used.
I have noticed that AI is actually being identified now as being used when many articles are written.
But it's scary how quickly it's getting better and better. I've used it to make sense of medical test results. What it outputs is impressive though I don't know how close it is to being accurate.... which is the problem.
DeleteCONGRATULATIONS, HANK!!! Fantastic news!!! What a glorious feather in your cap.
ReplyDeleteMy family members were/are all artists - painters, sculptors, musicians, etc. I don't know that it's a good thing. We really could have used and accountant somewhere in the mix. LOL.
IT'S A GREAT THING!!
DeleteCONGRATULATIONS, Hank!! You are such a star and we are so thrilled for you!!
ReplyDeleteMy dad started his own business and was very successful and my daughter has carried through the business/sales gene, which somehow missed me. The only other writer in my family was my uncle by marriage, so nothing in the blood there.
I think it takes a special talent to build and manage a business. And lucky you to have a daughter so talented.
DeleteMy familial through line would be teaching. All four of the children in my family ended up teaching, some for longer than others. My brother and my next to oldest sister both taught until retirement and also taught some college classes. My oldest sister taught for probably ten years and then turned to her art for herself (she had taught art in middle school). I taught English for less than a handful of years and then went to work for my husband in retail. I did return to education when I worked as a writing portfolio coach for fourth graders and later seniors. My mother was the starter for teaching, as she taught third grade for twenty years. My mother also set me on my path to reading, not only helping me realize the joy of it but the worth of it, too. Sitting and reading was not a lazy activity in my mother's house; it was a worthwhile pursuit. My father was in real estate, and, unfortunately, only my oldest sister took any interest in it, and that wasn't a lifetime thing. It was unfortunate about the real estate because my ex sister-in-law went into Daddy's real estate business and has ended up making boogoos of money. Her children are now in it. Oh well, I think the pursuit of knowledge and learning is a richness in itself.
ReplyDeleteAnd, saving the best for last. Congratulations, Hank, on your big win of the Mary Higgins Clark Award! I was so delighted when I saw you'd won it. It's on my FB page, too.
Kathy, you've said a mouthful with: "the pursuit of knowledge and learning is a richness in itself." I so agree. Teaching is definitely the thing I do best and it is SO satisfying! However my mother was truly horrified that that was what I wanted to be, ever since I was a kid. Too bad she didn't live to see me succeed in the profession she would have chosen - writing.
DeleteAlthough I have never been or wanted to be a teacher, I have had a number of opportunities to teach people how to do things they feel intimidated by. I try to simplify the process and reassure them they have the ability. Instead of showing them by doing it for them, I have them do it. It gives them the confidence in their ability to learn something new and to be more independent in what they can do.
ReplyDeleteIt also is gratifying to me when they are successful in learning what I helped them with.
Desk Set is a brilliant movies and one of my all time favorites. In addition to very witty dialogue, it also gives us a lesson on fearing technology. Sometimes you just need to wait a bit and see how it unfolds before you move your philodendron plant.
ReplyDelete