Is there really any mystery left in the world? With the advent of Google, search engines and cell phones, it’s apparent that we can find out just about anything at the touch of a screen.

Maybe there is something about the bite taken out of the Apple logo that adorns all of their products. AI is now taking over where Steve Jobs left off in the 80s. We have gone beyond the personal computer and are headed toward the type of existence that meshes technology into our existence so seamlessly that it is hardly noticed and almost impossible to perceive.

Some have described AI as a cultural disruptor on the same scale as the printing press and the personal computer. Much like the Western religious tradition of Eve taking a bite out of the apple picked from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are on the precipice of a future we may not be totally aware of from a humanity point of view. The snake posed the ultimate question to Eve: “Hath God really said?” And followed it up with: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

This isn’t a Sunday sermon, but you have to admit that technology should force us to answer some of the same questions asked way back in the garden. What has the absolute, uncontrolled and unaccountable access to whatever information we need, desire or want cost us? Maybe the ability to Google just about anything is a great tool for answering questions that used to require some minor research or at least a look into some reference books or materials. Now it’s in the palm of our hands.

People wear watches 24 hours a day to measure their steps, heart rate, exercise output, sleep patterns, blood pressure, monitor their messages and remind them of things that used to be important because — well — they were important. Soon you’ll have an AI assistant to take care of these things for you as well and you’ll be able to be more concerned with other, more pressing matters. Life has become much more simple while getting so much more complicated.

You can send away your DNA with the simple swath of your saliva for a look into your past and a perspective on your future. In just a few short weeks, you can know where you came from, what nationalities you belong to, track your potential for health issues, and even predispositions and personality traits. No mystery is too difficult for technology to solve these days.

But where does it all end up as we continue frantically toward a more informed future? Health complications that can be found at an earlier stage will result in increased positive outcomes, and your ability to manage certain predispositions will be enhanced by the accumulation of as much information as possible about you, your family, your community and your world.

Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a Pandora’s box of accumulated access to everything about you by technology that could care less about your heart or soul. The world is becoming a much clearer place to live in, and way more difficult to understand. Our ability to process information is not keeping up with our ability to collect that same information.

Maybe a little bit of mystery isn’t such a bad thing to have going on in your life. Maybe not knowing every single bit of information about yourself could be a good thing. Perhaps living a life that embraces a future that we build not knowing everything would give us more hope. It’s no mystery that when the mystery is taken out of our lives, we’re just living — I think we were meant for much more.

Every eventuality hasn’t been mapped out no matter how much technology promises that it can, and even AI has its limitations. Ask yourself some important questions about how you want to live before you have to run and hide when something else comes asking.

Lance Scranton is a career educator and has made his home in Moffat County for the past 25 years. He offers his views and opinions as part of the ongoing conversation about our community, country and world. Reach him at lance.scranton@consultant.com.