The Man Who Refused to Move Forward with AI
He did not want to change, although the world changed around him
Ralph was a stubborn man. He did not want to change his ways. He enjoyed preparing his materials, on his own. Furthermore, he never wanted to get assistance from anyone. Ralph was a shoemaker. He created some of the best shoes, in his small factory. He always created his designs from his own imagination.
The shoes in Ralph’s shop window always looked amazing, and his customers loved his great designs. There were a variety of shoes, for ladies and gentlemen. The shoes were of various colors, and there was a wide range of shoes, from the very expensive ones, made with the finest leather to the basic models, that were of the lowest prices.
Ralph made the most durable shoes in the city. His shoe shop was known all over the city. You knew you had quality shoes, if you bought them from his shop. Five years ago, there were a number of shoe companies opening in the city, that had the unique artificially generated designs. It did not take too long for Ralph to realize that he had more competitors in the marketplace than he ever imagined.
The shoemaker had no intention of getting a machine to generate designs and to craft shoes for him. Ralph loved designing and making his own shoes and having them stitched by his small workforce of five people in his factory.
The years came and the years went. Ralph’s shoe shop, “Great Wonder Shoes”, faced great losses and most of his customers were now buying their shoes from the new shops, with the unique shoe designs. The time came for Ralph to sell his shop. He did so, and he knew that he was not able to keep up with the changing times. The world was being taken over by A.I. and he should have moved with the times, but he was too timid to make such a bold move. Ralph was a school dropout, and he sometimes wished that he had completed school and college. Due, to family circumstances, he could not complete his education and needed to work early to support his mother and siblings, when his father died tragically in an accident.
All was not lost. Ralph was only fifty, and he decided to learn how to use a computer. He needed to know how it worked and then, perhaps, he could use artificial intelligence to start something new to make money for his young family. Ralph, joined one of the new shoe factories as a worker. He knew he needed to start somewhere and the new factory, with all that smart technology, was just perfect.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It