Teacher: "So, class, as a New Year's project, I'd like to ask all of you to think deeply about your future. Where do you see yourselves in perhaps 5, 10, 20 years time? Please submit your essays after winter break and the day we return to class. Have a great vacation!"
Student #1: "There goes my vacation. I'd hoped to earn some college money over the break, and this assignment will be cramping my style."
Student #2: "Word, dude. Mebbe we can get together and hit up ChatGPT for some ideas, then re-write it with our own style."
Student #3: "Why not just research what folks did in the past, and extrapolate that to modern day?"
Student #1: "Mmm. It's different, but might work."
Student #2: "Yeah! The teach is always babbling about how important it is to learn from history. Let's split up and do our own thing. Best grade wins a free burger at the diner on the rest of us."
*Fast-forward to class several weeks from current day:
Teacher: 'Student #1, good job, your vision of working steadily during school and college to support yourself displays motivation and persistence. Student #2, although this is one of your better essays, it was obvious that your work was not entirely your own, but AI-generated. Please see me after class. Student #3, your work was refreshingly interesting. Not only did you reveal that most of today's technology was conceived of after WWII and during the 50s and 60s, your case for exploring future technology was genuinely remarkable. Please give Student #3 a round of applause, class."
Student #1 & #2: "Congrats, dude, your work paid off."
Student #3: "Thanks, guys, but I owe it to the teacher. She had mentioned ever-so-briefly earlier this semester that modern day technology had been designed after WWII. Because of costs and existing production methods, technology became what it is today as production costs and methods made products more affordable, and not out of reach for the average consumer. You guys remember the first cell phone, how it looked like a huge walkie-talkie? Not until nanotechnology was developed that made circuitry small enough to fit into a smaller phone case did the cell phone market improve."
Student #1: "Wow. But how did you tie that in to where you see yourself in 10 or 20 years?"
Student #3: "Easy. Simply work for a forward-thinking tech company that has today's issues on its collective mind, and use the designs that were researched years ago to build products with evolving production methods that will meet the needs of generations to come."
Student #2: "Oh yeah, burger for this guy."
Student #3: "Awesome! BTW, can we stop calling each other Student 1, 2 and 3? My name's Cliff, and I've got a few things planned for my future..."
