But Decent Cell Service and High-speed Internet Would Sure Make a Difference
By John Francis, Publisher
Perhaps the hottest topic in the news outlets I read is Artificial Intelligence — how will it impact our lives, our standard of living, our economy? This has been an important question for quite a few years now, but the advent of Chat GPT and its peers will change the conversation yet again.
One article I read suggested that ChatGPT might well replace local journalism.
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The first century or so of the technological revolution — mechanized textile production and steam power — happened long before the European settlers arrived on the Saugeen Peninsula. Even the second wave — railroads, steamships, electricity, telephones, sewers — was well underway by the time the settlers came. But despite that, the pioneers here had little or no access to those technologies — they had to do pretty much everything by hand or by horse, despite the fact that bulldozers and steam shovels were a fact of life in the cities.
That pattern persists. In 2023, we have only spotty access to high-speed connectivity. Cell service is even spottier and we never did get a railroad. In fact, I’m pretty sure they invented traffic lights at least a century ago and we still don’t have any of them either despite repeated requests. But I digress…
So how is the next wave of technology likely to play out in our peculiar corner of the world economy? How will our key economic drivers — retirement, tourism and construction — be affected by artificial intelligence? And will AI and Chat GPT affect the current “dark horse” in our economic future — remote work?
Well, if the past is any indicator, they won’t have much effect for quite a while because they simply won’t arrive here. Not for decades. Artificial intelligence will be configured to serve the tens of millions of people, then it will trickle down to the hundreds of thousands of people. It won’t get down to serving small groups like us for a long time.
However, the previous wave of tech still hasn’t really arrived here. It may yet have a huge impact. If it ever gets here.
MNBP is home to a lot of retirees, people who have moved to the cottage to spend the rest of their lives at their “happy place”. One of the major concerns among this demographic is personal safety — what would happen if…? Cell service and connectivity would make a huge difference to their feeling of safety. Would it allow people to spend a few more years at the cottage? Would it make moving to the peninsula a more comfortable proposition?
Probably. Decent internet service would also enrich the evenings by making various kinds of online entertainment a lot more accessible.
Will improvements to cell service and connectivity have an equally large impact on tourism? Probably not as profound as with retirement, but still — visitors and tourism operators are constantly bumping their heads on our poor communications infrastructure.
Try to make a cell phone call from Lion’s Head and you’ll see what I mean. But it’s not just that. There is a huge improvement coming, just over the horizon: interactive social media. Imagine the difference it will make when Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat and Facebook start flagging the places you can’t get to and the attractions that are already fully booked. Imagine what will happen when tour boat ticket availability, restaurant waiting times and parking availability are automatically flagged when you look at all those gorgeous pictures.
This tech is coming and more besides.
Stakeholders are already doing some excellent research, tracking the movements of visitors by cell-phone pinging. Tourism professionals need more than numbers; they need to understand what the numbers mean. For example: when records show that 300 cars were turned away at the Grotto, 300 at Singing Sands and 300 at Little Cove Road — is that 900 cars? Or is it the same 300 cars being turned away in all three places? This is not a trivial question; planners need to know whether they’re dealing with 300 cars or 900. Cell phone pinging data can give us that information.
But the elephant in this particular room is remote work. There are literally hundreds of thousands of knowledge workers in crowded urban centres in Southern Ontario who are able to work from home. How many of them would move here and raise their families in our community if they could only get the bandwidth? How many of them would be tempted by the beaches, the boat launches, the Bruce Trail and all the rest?
I think that previous wave of technology will make a big difference when it finally gets here.
So will stoplights, but don’t hold your breath on that one.
