The Tin Man of Oz and the Age of AI Fairy tales deliver morals or messages, and the accessible one may differ from the political one. A few examples: Like the tale “Little Red Cap/Little Red Riding Hood” (1812) from the Brothers Grimm collection with its message about powerful predators and the sexual abuse of minors. Swift used “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726) to lampoon the petty squabbling between political parties (e.g. which end of the egg to crack?) and the state of affairs between England and other states. None of this is obvious to a modern reader even though Swift’s work is a masterpiece of satire. Edwin A. Abbott’s brilliant novel “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” (1884) satirized the social structure of Victorian society and the rigid, cruel class system that dictated what people could and could not do. Today that brilliant satire is forgotten and the novel is treated as purely a scientific endeavor that tackled the reality of multiple dimensions (which by itself is truly brilliant). Likewise, the Tin Man or the Tin Woodman, a character from the 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. The 1939 Hollywood movie “The Wizard of Oz” made the Land of Oz an endearing and well known tale. "The Wizard of Oz has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them." (Roger Ebert, 1996) The Tin Woodman, who Dorothy finds and rescues in a forest, joins her on her quest, to seek a heart for himself from the Wizard of Oz in Emerald City. They are both soon joined by the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion seeking a brain and courage respectively. The political milieu of the 1890s provides the sources for Baum’s Tin Woodman. Cartoons showing the tin man image to depict how greed had dehumanized human laborers were common. “This way Eastern witchcraft dehumanized a simple laborer so that the faster and better he worked the more quickly he became a kind of machine.” (Henry Littlefield, “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism,” 1964) The Tin Man seeks a heart, the recognition of the humanity of the laborer. The oil needed to lubricate the Tin Man’s joints signified the dependency and influence of Big Oil that was already shaping American politics. “…in the form of a subtle parable, Baum delineated a Midwesterner's vibrant and ironic portrait of this country as it entered the twentieth century.” (See Littlefield mentioned above: it would take us too far to cover the parable here.) (Karl Marx’s classic work Capital tackled the dehumanization of the worker that set in with the Industrial Revolution. The awareness of workers’ rights would set in motion dramatic political changes.) The Age of AI poses a number of questions for our current society as it displaces society’s muscle, nerves, brains, heart and voice step by step. #AgeofAI
Sammy B.
2mo
Suresh Babu, your post is a fascinating exploration of how literature often mirrors societal issues, like the dehumanization of labor in the age of industrialization. We must ensure that our increasing reliance on AI doesn't undermine the human element, especially in areas like data privacy and security.
Tech Advisor + Founder & CEO
2moNote: It is very likely that the source of Brothers Grimm tale "Little Red Cap" was the earlier Charles Perrault version ("Le Petit Chaperon Rouge") and Perrault left no doubt what message he intended for his readers to take away with this tale.