“Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.”Fans of Harry Potter will recognize this line from the second installment in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” but the wisdom doesn’t just apply to possessed books; in today’s A.I. age, the statement is more prescient than J.K. Rowling may have ever imagined.
I’m generally not one for self-ascribed labels, but “Luddite” seems to match up pretty well with my prematurely crusty attitude. I eschew so-called “smart” appliances, security systems and even watches in my personal life, although I do still interact with A.I. on a daily basis in regards to search engines, social media algorithms and those weird little quizzes that force me to decipher “how many images contain a bus” so that I can access my email. I daydream about living in an off-grid house in a place where even Google Maps can’t find me, but the ones that seem to remain are in the cold, dark edges of the map where few have dared to roam.
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My Luddite leanings were recently tested, however, when I was given the opportunity to try out Carhartt‘s A.I.-powered heated vest: the Carhartt X-1 Smart Heated Vest. Developed in partnership with clim8, the workwear piece was created to, in the company’s words, “outwork fluctuating body temps and built to personalize heat and comfort both on and off the job.”
I may be Luddite-adjacent, but those principles stop in their tracks when faced with the thought of being cold, because you can bet I jumped on the opportunity to try out a vest that could keep me temperate and comfortable even in the chilliest of camping and outdoor explorations.
