Another one where my memory fails me, this time from November 2018. All I have is the title, “The Big.”

Now I’m left to wonder, “the big what?” I would have been in southern Germany, but I don’t remember anything there that grabbed me according to its size.

I can’t even begin to speculate as to what I was thinking about, so I asked ChatGPT, everyone’s favorite AI Chat program, what it could possibly mean. Here is the response:

“The Big” is a phrase that is often used as a prefix to describe something large, significant, or important. It is a colloquial way of emphasizing the size, scale, or importance of a particular thing or event. For example:

1. The Big Picture: Refers to the overall perspective or the full scope of a situation, considering all the important details.
2. The Big Apple: A nickname for New York City, emphasizing its importance and prominence.
3. The Big Game: Often used to describe a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, indicating its significance.
4. The Big Day: Refers to an important or significant day, such as a wedding day.

Without more context, it’s challenging to pinpoint the exact meaning of “The Big.” The interpretation could depend on the context in which it’s used. If you have a specific context or sentence in mind, providing more details would help in offering a more accurate interpretation.

It definitely wasn’t any of those – but at least ChatGPT didn’t try and make something up. It “understood” its limitations.

On good day I am concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence. Other days it has me fearful that those who are working in the field have absolutely no idea of what they are creating and how to control it.

Technology is one of the themes I expect we will be exploring a bit more here in 2024. This year is the 70th anniversary of Jacques Ellul’s seminal work, The Technological Society, and I plan to re-read it at least once before the year ends, maybe more.

Ellul had a prophetic insight into the effects of technology on individuals and on the society those individuals find themselves living in. He understood how something that is supposed to improve the quality of the lives we lead can sometimes become very dehumanizing.

As I have been writing this, I have been trying to remember what it was that was so “big” that I didn’t need to add any text to remind me of what I wanted to write about. My memory hasn’t improved.

I took a lot of photos the day I wrote that title. None were of anything big. Someone too a picture of me taking a picture, so I included that in this post.

I guess some mysteries just weren’t made to be answered.