The other night at my favorite Italian restaurant, I overheard a conversation that one couldn’t help but overhear. In this age of ultra-partisan disagreement, I was pleasantly taken aback to hear civility in disagreement.
“Democrats have become too woke! This is why I moved out of California,” said a man with a shock of half-grey hair. You could tell he was a premature ager, for his demeanor had a seductive, youthful energy. I was immediately attracted to this fellow, mostly for what he was saying.
“What do you mean by too woke?” asked his dining partner, an Asian man with spiky pure black hair, putting down his fork with a bang. “Is fighting for women and gay rights too woke for you? How can we be too woke? What did Newt Gingrich say? Extremism in the service . . .”
The greying white man turned in his metal chair, showing off an elegant belt through new jeans, and replied, “You mean Barry Goldwater.” Obviously, the two were good friends. The Asian was called Mark. I didn’t quite make out the white guy’s name, Darit, Danny, Dali.
“Barry Goldwater! Thank you! Extremism in the service . . .”
“Of virtue is not a vice. Yes, yes. Except maybe it is a vice. Have you heard the news about Gemini, Google’s new AI service? It was launched this week, and immediately, the company was getting serious kickback from users that the image generator was way too woke. Did you see this? It’s comical.”
“What? No.”
“OK, so with most AI, when you ask it for the image of a pope, you get a hunched old guy with a white robe who looks like he was on the losing side of the boxing match with God."
“Haha.”
Google’s Gemini shows a black woman pope! Nazi soldiers came up as Asians and Blacks.”
“Haha. Seriously?”
"Google has programmed it to be so sensitive to gender and race to the point that it’s not historically accurate. So this is what we’re losing with wokeness: the truth. Democrats are so fanatical about changing the future that they’re now changing the past.
“Excuse me! It is you MAGA Republicans who are trying to say that the history of slavery in this country should not be taught in the classroom. That America was founded by Jesus.”
“I’m not a Republican. I just like to keep a clear head,” said the Danny person. "So look, I’m all for equal rights, but this is clearly a dead end for the Democrats. How are they going to get out of this cul de sac?”
“It’s not a cul de sac. It’s the future. What do you propose?”
“Well, what’s the core question here?”
I listened intently while gobbling down my lasagna. In fact, I didn’t know where it had gone, but I did remember that it was good
“The core question is if you let Republicans have their way, we’ll be back to the last century,” said Mark.
“That’s not a question. The question is how can progressives fight their fight and at the same time be truthful about history?” Danny stopped and slowly chewed his pizza. "Is that the question?” he continued. “OK, here’s a better question. How do you create a future when you can’t look clearly at the past?”
“It is Democrats who look at the past. Who’s out there funding the future of science, and who, on the other hand, has been out there promoting creationism?”
“Well, you got me there.” The pizza seemed to be now dominating Danny’s attention. I wondered which of the pizzas on the menu it was. Did I have room for pizza? No way. But yes, to another glass of Chianti.
“Democrats have a clear view of the past. That’s why they talk about slavery, systemic racism, women’s rights. Come on, man. Who looks clearly at the past: Democrats or Republicans? And here is the core question: Is it even possible for AI to be non-biased?”
“Yeah, okay, that’s good,” Danny admitted. I, too, was now interested in Mark’s argument.
“I think you’re going over to the dark side. There is no such thing as ‘too woke.’ OK, so Google needs to tweak their algorithms.”
“Well, that’s just the issue. You would think they would have tweaked them before they released the product, and I’m sure they did. But they’re all suffering from groupthink. They’re all liberal, so they didn’t even catch this.”
My waiter came by asking if I was done with my plate, and I ordered that next glass of wine. So I didn’t catch Mark’s reply. I couldn’t exactly say, don’t interrupt me: I’m listening to the next table over. But I wanted to.
“I went online and tried it myself,” said Danny.
“And?”
“I asked Gemini for the image of a Mongol. And I got naked Native Americans on horseback with bright headdresses.”
“Well, that’s just inaccurate. It’s a bad product.”
“Yes, it’s a bad product because it’s trying to turn everyone into an American minority; it’s forced equality.”
“You should be forced to eat that salad.”
“Yes, Democrats want to force us all. And if we don’t comply, we’ll be canceled. It reminds me of my hometown Republicans back in the 80s when I grew up.”
“You grew up? I said you were a Republican.”
“Screw you. One thing I’ve noticed about Democrats is that they think they have the only right version of history.”
Mark now stopped to focus on his food.
Danny continued, “And one thing I’ve noticed about Republicans is that they think they have the only right version of history.”
Mark chewed his food with a polite, and I might say elegantly closed mouth. Perhaps they were done with this topic. They were. Mark began to talk about a recent situation with his dentist’s wife.
But they soon returned to the issue of politics. “It’s a real problem for the Democrats,” said Danny.
“So what, you’re all in with the Republicans who, under Trump, are now out and out racists. Immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country. Women can’t have an abortion. Embryos are now very young children?”
"I’m just curious what Google is going to do. Can a modern AI company be true to history and develop both political viewpoints? Wouldn’t this be diversity? But I also think there’s a deeper, more fundamental question, and that's the memory issue. How is memory built? Is history memory?” asked Danny.
“That sounds a bit esoteric. Go on.”
“Well, we’re talking about history and historical truth, but history depends on memory. Memory is an individual process by which a person retains information over time, so memory can be subjective.”
“What about collective memory?”
“Perhaps we’re having a hard time right now having a collective memory.”
“There, you may be on to something. But why? Why are we remembering the same things differently? I actually think people do have similar, truthful memories. Biology is biology, and it works. They’re just in denial.”
“I’m not sure. It can be a mixed bag.”
“What does the dictionary say memory is? I’m going to Google it.” Mark pulled out his phone.
“Now there’s a product that has worked pretty well for both teams!”
“Yes, and their new AI will get better.”
“Will it?”
My waiter brought me the bill. I paid it and left satisfied.