John and I were sitting on the back porch earlier, watching the sky darken, sipping on seltzer and vermouth. The frogs off in the woods, who were peepers just a month ago, are now full-throated ribbiters. They were calling to each other in different tones, high and low, back and forth.
John said, “you know, soon we’ll know what they’re saying to each other. There are AI models working on it.”
There was a time that would have been exciting to me. Now I kind of dread knowing. If the internet has taught me anything, it’s that being aware of what everyone thinks of everything is kind of a nightmare.
My immediate thought was, what if they’re talking about us? What if they’re critiquing my hair? What if they’re saying we didn’t really land on the moon or that the earth is flat or they’re discussing some manosphere podcast they’re into?
I don’t want to know. I want to enjoy the cool of the evening with their calls as a soothing soundtrack.
I clarified to John that I was not against people doing the research. I’m all for science, and I can appreciate that knowing what frogs are saying is probably really important to a lot of people. I just don’t want to hear about it.
Excellent!
You probably think these croaks are about you.