Baby Boomer or Gen(eration) AI - an attitudinal choice ... 2025

 

1957 Morris Minor - the same vintage as the author

Those of us born in the two decades since WW-II have been tagged (Baby) Boomers (1946-1964). Many of us Boomers have marveled and envied the generations that followed:

• GenX (1965-1980), 
• GenY or Millennials (1981-1996), 
• GenZ (1997-2012), 
• GenAlpha (2013-2025), 
• GenBeta (2025-2039) 

for the longer leaps and bounds within their reach. This is notwithstanding some of the laments by the Boomers about the degradation of the social fabric, etc. in the generations that followed. (Sour grapes, perhaps, but that is not the topic of discussion of this blogpost).

The title of this post deliberately used the phrase Generation AI to distinguish it from Generative AI (used with its commonly used abbreviation Gen AI). Expounding the fast-evolving vast capabilities of Gen AI is also not the purpose of this blogpost - there is no shortage of material on that topic.

This blogpost is about the enviable position that we Boomers find ourselves in in today's world.

Immune from Disruption

Boomers have already survived their share of disruptions with computers displacing stenographers, typists and comptometrists, and more. They are now in their retirement or near-retirement and are beyond caring what more disruptions are coming. Gen AI is likely to be bigger than the biggest of disruptors we have seen and is becoming all-pervasive at an unprecedented pace. The later generations are finding their once-honed skills to be rendered obsolete, and many are struggling to remain relevant.

Leapfrogging into the Future

Many of us who look at youngsters (children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren) have felt that technology has passed us by - we waited at the bus stop while the spaceships were taking off from elsewhere! Gen AI gives us the opportunity to jump to the final destination without the labor of the journey. Don't worry about how "it does that", just ask a Gen AI website what happens when you get gout! Or, suggest a complicated formula in Excel to do some fancy operation; or, fast-pace learning art and music; or, whatever meets your fancy!

Walking stick? No - a magic wand!

Just as there is no downside of using a walking stick (if at all, I see additional benefits like warding off dogs on your morning walk), our generation can get super capable with adding the magic wand to be another companion to your walking stick. The cost - zero for the most common uses, and USD 20 is the current competitive monthly subscription at several sites - same order of magnitude as your copay for cholesterol, hypertension, or diabetes management prescription!

Boomer or Generation AI? 

The choice is ours! We upped the scale from rickety stick-shifts to luxury cars in mid-life, and now is the time to rev it up further. Combine the decades of life experience (realizing that a good chunk of it is irrelevant) with the newly available fuel - and you can be more useful to the world or yourselves than the next generations tormenting over how the wave is going to hit them. I'll leave it to the sociologists to worry about those impacts, and the cultural anthropologists to write about it decades down the road. For now, enjoy the thrill of the ride!

 (Note: This post was not written using GenAI and has arisen from the natural intelligence and vocabulary of the author)