I remember as a child the first time I encountered an artificial plant and artificial fruit. I was amazed with the detail and life like recreation of the plant and fruit. I quickly realized I had missed part of the title “artificial” and there was a distinct difference between it and the real thing. If you find yourself hungry you will discover the “artificial” part of this fruit leaves you unfulfilled. The plant might serve its purpose for home decoration (it will never give the satisfaction a real plant brings). If you try to grow more fruit by planting seeds, or another plant by grafting a limb, you again see the obvious difference. At the end of the day something that is artificial will never bring the joy the real thing does.

Artificial Intelligence is the new buzz term of the last five years. It makes our lives more convenient but it will never bring the joy of watching your child learn to spell a word, or tell you their multiplication tables or play an instrument. The thing about being “artificial” is the depth, what you see is what you get and nothing more. We should take care in watching shows that are called “reality television”, when”reality” couldn’t be further from the truth. Fantasy and daydreaming have their place in our psyche and are needed, it is what fuels the thing we call imagination. Just be very careful that you don’t look at something artificial enough you begin to think it is real. That artificial apple might look beautiful and tempting to your taste buds, but don’t bite into it. You will quickly find what the name artificial really means.