This is the time to remember and record

I recently learned a geeky AI term that captures a lot of what I have been feeling over the past two weeks: “catastrophic forgetting.”

Catastrophic forgetting [1] happens when neural networks (the massively interconnected computer nodes used to create AI models) suddenly ‘forget’ the data that was used to train them after being presented with new information. It results in an AI model making inaccurate and/or harmful predictions. 

I thought, if that’s not a metaphor for what we’ve all just gone through for the last eight years, I don’t know what is. 

A dispiriting number of Americans have apparently managed to forget just what a rolling dumpster of flaming pig offal the Trump I regime was. Babies in cages? Families separated at the border? The grossly inept response to a global pandemic, resulting in hundreds of thousands of needless deaths? The complete corruption of the Supreme Court? The dismantling of a woman’s right to make medical decisions about her own body? The attempted coup on January 6?

Does any of that ring a bell? Or is all of that outweighed by the fact that eggs are more expensive than they were four years ago? [2]

Even more troubling, Americans appear to have forgotten the lessons of history. That, or their knowledge of the rise of fascism, the holocaust, WWII and its aftermath begins and ends with “Hogans Heroes.” [3]

I know that our public education system has been on a steady decline for decades (and not by accident – I call it “every child left behind”) but, come on. Seriously?

Capitulation and collaboration

One of the things people have also forgotten is how many Americans actively cheered on the Bad Guys back in the day. Including famous sympathizers like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Walt Disney, to name three. 

Now replace Hank, Chuck, and Walt with Elon, Jeff, and Mark. [4]

Speaking of which, does anybody still remember that huge Nazi Rally in Madison Square Garden? No, not the one from 1939, the one from last month. Anybody?

Remember all the companies that collaborated with the original Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s? I didn’t. I had to look it up. But the American companies included General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Eastman Kodak, Coca Cola, and IBM. German firms included Bayer, BMW, Chanel, Chase Bank, Lufthansa, Hugo Boss, Mercedes Benz, Merck, Siemens…. It’s a long list. 

How many of you knew they were Friends of Adolph? How many do you still do business with today?

Never forget

We’re about to learn a lot of uncomfortable truths about our neighbors, family members, companies we do business with, athletes or artists we admire (or used to admire), digital platforms and apps we use every day, and so on. The parade of capitulation, if not quiet jubilation, has barely gotten started. It’s going to get much worse. 

It probably won’t be possible to respond to all of this with boycotts and protests.  There’s only so much moral outrage any person can muster in a day. Just trying to keep track of who you should and shouldn’t do business with, or even find alternative services whose corporate overlords have not bent the knee, can be exhausting and sometimes impossible.

But one thing we can all do is not fall prey to catastrophic forgetting. This is the time to remember and record. If not for ourselves, then for those who may follow us. 

What will you remember about this dark time? Share your thoughts in the comments or email me: [email protected].

[1] It’s also known as “catastrophic interference,” which also applies, but in a different way.

[2] Or you’re just a misogynist/racist/dullard. You decide.

[3] Sergeant Schultz’s “I know nothink!” has become the mantra of our age.

[4] Other tech billionaires are also lining up and puckering up, including Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and even Mark Cuban. Gates and Cuban publicly supported Harris during the election. I guess they too can tell which way the wind is blowing.