Storms are Brewing

There's deep thunder rolling in the distance. Phil pulls his phone from it's holder. Clicking on the local weather app he sees there are storms approaching. He's glad he purchased that little indoor generator last year. It has come in handy more times than he can count as they've had some unusually intense storms, and even flooding, in the area lately. "I guess I need to check it's charge" he says to himself as he gets up from the table and walks to the bedroom. He pulls the box from the closet and makes sure it's ready to go. "Yep, full battery. If power goes out I can at least keep my laptop running and my phone on charge overnight" he thinks. "Now, back to the task at hand" Phil says to Churchill, who had already curled up on the bed for his after dinner cat-nap.

As Phil returns to the kitchen table the thunder, now closer, reminds him of something James had mentioned in their earlier discussion about weather patterns. Thinking again of the unusual weather over the past few years Phil grabs a couple of the articles James had scribbled a Bible passage on. One headline reads "Generational Flooding has left the UK Reeling." Another article from 'The Guardian' headlines "It Sounds Apocalyptic" with the subtitle reading "Experts warn of impact of UK floods on birds, butterflies and dormice." with James handwriting beside it "Mark 13:8 There will be famines. But these things are nothing compared to what's coming." Phil turns to that passage in The Message Bible James loaned him and reads "When you hear of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don't panic. This is routine history and no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. But these things will be nothing compared to what's coming." Phil scans over other words written that Jesus spoke but stops abruptly when he reads "will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better." Phil thought that sounded an awful lot like what he had read earlier from the book of Revelation. Phil slowly moves up the page to verse 21 and scans down, reading more slowly the second time. "False messiahs" "lying preachers" bewitching performances". "Hmmm....so Jesus said this, huh?" Phil thought. He then pulls a box of neatly stacked articles he had printed over the last few months, looking for a particular article in 'Psychology Today' he had run across in his own AI research. "Ah, here it is!" he said aloud. "AI's Superhuman Persuasion". The author writes about how AI already has the ability to influence human behavior and decisions far beyond human capability. The article ends with how AI poses serious rises of manipulation in consumer, political and personal spheres.

As Phil returns to the article in 'The Guardian' that James had given him he reads "The floodwaters are only good for scavenger species." He remembers reading that in some parts of the country nature reserves are completely under water with butterfly and other insect eggs being washed away with potential nesting sites possibly being lost. Of course, the article read, there's always the long-term effect for those species who rely on not only the pollination many insects carry out but the food chain they supply. If there are less insects to feed hatching chicks there are less birds to feed prey animals which causes a domino effect across nature and, inevitably, across the human population as well. Phil thinks "maybe part of what those doomsday preachers have shouted over the years now has a name...Global Warming or Human Induced Famine. How's that for the old saying 'what goes around comes around'?"

The lights flicker and thunder suddenly explodes directly above the house as it's clouds dump barrels of rain from their dark recesses. Churchill simultaneously charges from the bedroom literally launching himself towards Phil's lap despite the box full of articles resting on it. That approaching storm arrived before expected and is now seemingly unloading all of it's fury right on top of Phil and poor Churchill. Articles strewn across the kitchen floor, with their container box laying against the kitchen door, Churchill has quickly found solace in Phil's lap, leaving Phil once again a bit envious of the old cats lot in life. Phil wonders if this physical storm is a shadow of the AI and human induced storms showing themselves on the horizon.

As the lights go dark Phil wishes there was some consolation or comfort he could run to. The volume of all these storms are rapidly invading and replacing the good life Phil has comfortably settled into.

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