My new hobbies include…

We are living in an AI-driven world, or at least I am. For the past few months I’ve seen articles about nothing but AI — mostly in the form of language processors like ChatGPT, or text-to-image systems like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion. There’s the race for AI and how companies are either at the bleeding edge or falling behind. At Christmas every member of my family would have been an emphatic Google supporter, but in the last few weeks they’ve seen their reputation and stock price take a nose dive over their handling of Artificial Intelligence. Through this artificially intelligent haze, I’ve discovered a new part of my humanity.

Anyone who knows me can tell you about my passion for gardening. I’ve learned it’s a way to step away from the computer and connect to the earth. Flowers give a slow progress bar to measure against, fruits and vegetables give you opportunities beyond the garden and into the kitchen to learn new skills. Growing plants from seed allows for near opportunities in what’s available, limited only by what’s non-invasive in your area and what’s available via the Post Office.

There’s both an art and a science to learning to handle garden plants. Understanding the soil and dramatic and impact water and sunlight can chance a yard in the distance of a bathtub. Learning the required dexterity to not kill a tender seedling is something that took years. Growing with corn until it’s tall enough that it reaches a stage the best thing you can do for it is to shake like there’s no tomorrow. All skills I learn and improve upon each year from March through November.

Winter brings the garden back to my computer. I’m uploading pictures from the past year, updating spreadsheets on success and plotting out next year’s garden, and reflecting on what I want the next year to look like.

This winter I’ve been filtering the news of AI through my yearning for Springtime gardening. At surface level the two can’t be more diametrically opposed; machine minds generating content long thought of as “human driven,” and the generative cycle of life seemingly only share one word. It’s the disparity that brings the two concepts together.

I’m writing a lot more than I used to, and I’ve been inspired by the AI to write for myself. As an engineer to my core the writing wasn’t easy at the start, but when the keys turned to gardening I couldn’t stop.