Until your prediction happens we need to rely on standard intelligence to gather and interpret what’s going on, to keep an ear to the ground, to sniff out when something isn’t right and celebrate what should be recognized. How this research is paid for is a question. How the discoveries are disseminated–in print or online or by podcast or some other way–is not as important. When I watch a man like Robert Costa, National Political Reporter of the Washington Post and PBS Washington Week moderator, I’m in awe of his connections and what he shares with his audiences. Locally, there need to be junior Mr. Costa’s or the bad guys will win.

I thought the same about cable news but it doesn’t cover what is happening in Denver or Minneapolis or New Orleans, etc. and the crooks and those who should be commended in towns and cities around the country are not being watched or called out. Budgets from the cable stations can’t stretch to the local level. This means that people will be ill-informed when it comes to electing local officials or supporting local businesses.

Unfortunately newspapers will eventually phase out into online newspapers. That’s part of the reason I retired from advertising when I did. I was primarily doing newspaper ads! The actual circulation of the physical newspaper went down so much… It was no longer a viable media for many of my clients.

We continue to read the new York Times online. Of course the news Cable stations like CNN and MSNBC also supply huge amounts of very current news… That even the online newspapers have difficulty keeping up with. Their reporters can’t be everywhere but CNN seems to have a knack for getting people that are near the story. So newspapers will continue but not on paper!

Some of you may remember the great 1949 war film, “Twelve O’clock High,” about an English based demoralized squadron of U.S. long distance bomber pilots worn down by their losses flying missions 75 years ago over Germany. It is superbly written, beautifully acted and one of the few movies of its kind to strike a true nerve.

Where is the hook? We lost many pilots’ lives bombing Germany, and we lost none bombing Syria, at least on this occasion. Why? Because these bombs were missiles; there were none.

Just as in this raid, where few American lives were at immediate risk, the Denver Post has been hemorrhaging skilled labor, not because its product is inferior, rather because its new owners have found they can improve return on investment by putting out a paper using artificial intelligence to replace them. This invention, dangerous as it may be, is indeed the future.

Artificial intelligence is supposedly capable of creating an advanced version of ourselves at our current level of development. If it is, and does, it will become unstoppable, because it will be capable of outwitting whoever tries to stop it including us.