TECHNOLOGY - AN ESSENTIAL TOOL

TOOLS FOR BLOGGING AND WRITING AND AI TAKING OVER

INTRODUCTION

Technology is taking over! It had already been on an exponential rise, but now with the rise of AI the process has been accelerated even further. With its rise came forth a plenitude of questions. Is it safe? Is it sentient? What is lurking beneath? Should we use it? As a Christian, I have my reservations about AI. I believe it will play a sinister role in the end times and advise against its use.

TECHNOLOGY HAS BECOME ESSENTIAL

Technology. Technology. Technology. It has exponentially taken over the world in the last decades. When I was young, it was not common to own a mobile phone. Nowadays, we are not even able to function without one. 

Yes, technology has ventured into every area of our lives and soon might even replace us at work, if you believe the prediction of man greater than me. It is no different in writing. There was already a wide variety of different tools that assisted us in writing, but now with AI even more are coming out. 

They bring great value by saving us time and money. They are there to remind us of what we need to do or even drive and encourage us not to quit. Of course when in a block you can also use it for generating ideas, though I personally am not as big of a fan. 

Their contribution has brought a flux of change. Though I sometimes still prefer pen and paper, I can not argue that it makes a world’s difference if you use technology. 

Today I will give a short review of the different tools, then share my opinion of using AI-powered tools. 

BEST WRITING TOOLS

There is a wide variety of tools available. Some are intended purely for writing, others are organizational. Some boost productivity, and some provide editorial functions. 

Here is a quick introduction to the best available tools out there.

1. GOOGLE DOCS: Versatile and free tool for writing and storing documents in the cloud. Useful for collaborations with its easy editing, commenting, and reviewing. And it has a voice-typing feature too. (1)

2. DRAFT: a tool similar to Google Docs that also allows you to set daily e-mail reminders to help you reach your writing goals. (2)

3. LibreOffice: the free counterpart to Microsoft Office. (2)

4. MELLEL: a word-processing tool designed as the ultimate writing tool for academics, technical writers, scholars, and students. (2)

5. SCRIVENER: a platform that permits writing in a structured manner with their Binder feature. It also has a research storage feature to keep everything well organized and on hand. (1)

6. THESAURUS: provides alternatives for your sentence-structuring and word usage by helping you find synonyms, antonyms, etc. 

7. QUILLBOT:  a paraphrasing tool helping you in your quest to avoid plagiarism. (1)

8. GRAMMARLY: an editor assisting by improving sentence structure, and overall writing and detecting grammatical errors. (1)

9. ULYSSES: Apple-only writing tool similar to Scrivener. (1)

10. MILANOTE: an easy-to-use creative writing app to organize your research, ideas, characters, and outline in one place. (2)

11. SURFY: One of the many AI-powered editing tools that also creates original content. (1)

12. ATTICUS: an app for book writing and formatting. (1)

13. HUBSPOT’S AI CONTENT WRITER: helps bloggers streamline their content creation process (2)

14. MARINARA TIMER: a time managing tool keeping you in line with the Pomodoro Technique time managing method. A method that implements 5-minute breaks between each 25-minute long period of writing. (2)

15. REEDSY BOOK EDITOR: a book editing, formatting, and writing tool. It also allows for direct connection to designers, professional editors, and other features. (1)

16. HEMINGWAY EDITOR: provides real-time insights that makes text more readable. (1)

17. chatGPT: a content-creating, idea-generating, versatile AI-powered writing tool. (1)

18. SURFER AI: AI-powered content writer for long-form SEO content (1)

19. MICROSOFT COPILOT: AI-powered tool specializing in humanizing AI-generated content among its other uses. (1)

20. JENNI AI: AI-powered content creator tool geared towards academic writing. (1)

21. ProWritingAid: real-time improvements-providing online processor. (1)

22. SUDOWRITE: a writing and editing tool for creative writers. Based on the existing story it writes out the next few hundred words considering the plot. Its rewrite feature also edits the already existing storyline. (1)

23. SURFER AI HUMANIZER: AI-powered writing tool that specializes in converting AI-generated content into human-like writing. (1)

24. CLICHÉ FINDER:  a writing tool assisting in identifying and eliminating overused phrases. (1)

25. EVERNOTE: a note-taking platform useful for creating to-do lists and other documents (1)

26. COLD TURKEY: a website and social media platform blocking tool providing distraction-free working time (1)

27. STAY FOCUSED: a tool similar to Cold Turkey. It also blocks websites from distracting you while working. (1)

28. OMMWRITER: a distraction-free providing writing tool. (1)

29. FREEDOM: a tool that functions similarly to Cold Turkey, except it allows for syncing throughout all your devices. (2)

30. TODOIST: a tool providing planning features to help you manage tasks, meet deadlines, etc. (1)

31. BEAR: an Apple note-taking app. (1)

32. NOISLI: a tool offering free online background noises that enable you to create your own soothing soundscapes for work, study, or sleep. (2)

33. LIVESCRIBE PEN: a physical pen with a built-in microphone that records as you write. Perfect for journalists and interviewers. It also features a camera that captures snapshots. (1)

34. REMARKABLE: a digital tablet designed to recreate the sensation of writing on paper. (1)

35. FICTIONARY: creates intelligent visuals that help you improve your story's structure, characters, plot, and settings. (2)

36. THE MOST DANGEROUS WRITING APP: a unique tool that challenges writers to practice continuous writing without interruptions or self-editing. (1)

37. MARLOWE PRO: AI-powered manuscript assessment tool. (2)

38. SURFER TOPIC EXPLORER: offers the automated process of finding keyword ideas. (1)

39. ZOTERO: helps academics and researchers easily manage citations, references, and research materials in one place. (1)

40. LINER: a helpful research and writing assistant. Helps people extract key information from documents. (1)

41. COMPUTER GLASSES: assist us in preventing computer vision syndrome (CVS) development. (2)

1. https://surferseo.com/blog/writing-tools/ 

2. https://blog.reedsy.com/writing-tools/ 

AI AND ITS IMPACT

WILL AI TAKE OVER?

With AI taking over all aspects of life by storm, people have been wondering what it could mean for society. Are we going to be replaced at our workplaces? Is AI to be trusted? Is it truly sentient? 

In my humble opinion, we will never be replaced. Technology will always need an overviewer. What if it malfunctions? Who shall fix it? Who shall make sure it works properly? Who shall make sure that it is working to its proper standard? It can not regulate itself in my opinion.

Let’s be real. As one who worked in healthcare, more specifically in a laboratory setting, I have had the luxury of working manually with different laboratory tests, kits, and also big analyzers intended to take manual testing out of the game. 

And though it has certainly made some things simpler, it did not necessarily translate into less work time. Someone still needed to pay attention to the proper functioning of the Analyzers. And when it malfunctioned, it would at times be reparable quickly, or it took almost forever. 

Humans getting replaced by robots in itself leaves me with a bad aftertaste. We are called to serve in our unique way. It does not seem to be God’s divine plan. I believe He has another plan. Maybe it involves robots down the line, but I firmly believe we will never be cast away. 

IS AI SENTIENT? IS IT TRUSTWORTHY? IS IT CHANELLING DEMONS?

The whole concept of AI being sentient has caused an uproar. Per Merriam Webster Dictionary the word sentient means, “capable of sensing or feeling : conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling” 

Humans are considered sentient. So are animals and even plants by some. So to be sentient, you would need to be a living being, or so it seems. Or as I have felt and wondered lately. You would need to have spirit in you. 

So for AI to be sentient, would per my reasoning, mean it has spirit too. Or at the very least the thought of my conclusions is what stops me from working with AI. For if I am right, which spirit is communicating with us? In my books, it is not to be trusted.

This topic is not new. It has been discussed before. But ever since I have ventured outside laboratory medicine into business, writing, blogging, and social media, did I become aware of how widespread it already is. Apparently, I have been living under a rock up until now. Why does that not surprise me?

Me living under a rock

Melissa Fassbender in her article AI Is Summoning Demons published on Oct 30, 2014 shares her sentiments on this subject. She dwells on Elon Musk’s expression of concern regarding AI. Can we summon the devil with AI? I guess it can be done but as Christians, we do not have to worry. We already know who won this war. Still, we should fight back.

Paul Kingsnorth dwells deeper into the subject in his article AI Demonic: A Spiritual Exploration of AI, published in TOUCHSTONE MAGAZINE on March 13, 2024. He asked himself a series of questions that surely have plagued the minds of many. What is behind technology? What is behind AI? Some of the potential answers he offers seem quite chilling to me. They give me food for thought and a good amount of warning and correction.

AI! If only they were as cute as that robot on the left.

Many believe there might be something sinister behind technology as a whole. Self-learning Golem-class AIs might be a good sign pointing towards it. A god named Arihman potentially being behind it all sure makes me want to shut off my electronic devices. Actually, I just might. And perhaps you should too. 

SHOULD WE USE AI?

Considering what I just mentioned in the previous paragraphs, I consider AI a great concern. I advise against using it. And in general, call us all collectively to be wise when dealing with electronics. Let us not let them take over our minds or our lives. 

I prefer working on my writing with my skills alone anyway, so AI isn’t something I like to gravitate toward. I like seeing what people created and came up with in the first place. I like that creativity in myself and others. And so I stand behind it respectfully. 

IN SHORT

Technology, more explicitly AI nowadays is taking over all aspects of life. It has contributed to us greatly in many areas, even writing, and made our lives easier. There is a wide variety of different writing tools out there, and quite a few are AI-powered. AI is of great concern in my opinion, and according to many others. What is behind that intelligence? Could it be a spirit? Multiple spirits? A demon? A false god? Either way, I advise against its use but understand if others disagree. At the end of the day I love celebrating man's creativity. I am awe-inspired as to what it all can do. And love seeing all the different designs humans come up with.

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Until next time!