Defending My Right to Have a Bad Day and Slow Internet

A poignant opinion piece in a major British newspaper has argued that "being human means living with friction." The author claims that AI advocates are trying to remove all the "messiness" of life—the misunderstandings, the waiting in line, the struggle to find the right word—and in doing so, they are killing the soul. It’s a brave stance in an era where we want everything "now" and "perfect." The AI advocates want a world where you never have to think because the machine has already done it for you. But as the article points out, "friction" is where art, love, and growth happen. If you never have to argue with your spouse about directions because the AI GPS is perfect, you never get the joy of a spontaneous road trip to a place you didn't mean to go. The piece is a beautiful reminder that we are more than just "efficiency units." Of course, the irony is that most people read the article on an AI-curated newsfeed while an AI summarized the main points so they didn't have to read the whole thing. We love the idea of friction, but we’d still prefer it if the AI wrote our emails and did our taxes. We want the soul of a poet, but the speed of a quantum computer.