But this then prodded another old memory I've often recalled out of the love of its endless pertinence to our evermore mass-consumption-loving times. It was the story I remembered either being read to, or reading myself, from a picture book when very young, about a place where it was decreed that no one would be allowed to eat more than one bite of their banana split. Each banana split had to be thrown out afterwards. I guess the idea was that the first bite, being the "most anticipated" was "the best" and all others would be "inferior" so to insure the most satisfaction, banana splits had to be eaten this way, no ifs ands or buts.
I was thinking it might have been a Dr. Seuss story but a quick Google search proved that it was the more famously known "The Lorax" which was his cautionary tale about over-consumption, environmental waste and resource exploitation.
But putting in a more descriptive set of parameters, specifically this phrase: "story about everyone taking only one bite out of banana split and throwing away the rest a cautionary tale about waste and resource exploitation" in my Google search finally got me this AI OVERVIEW result:
In a shimmering metropolis built on the principles of immediate gratification, the "Banana Split Protocol" was instituted, quickly becoming an emblem of the era's opulent excess. The law mandated that every citizen was entitled to one towering, perfect banana split daily, a masterpiece of ice cream, syrups, and toppings. The rule, however, came with a peculiar and extravagant catch: each person was only allowed to take a single bite before the remainder had to be discarded into the city's vast, rumbling incinerators.
Initially, the citizens were ecstatic. The single bite was the perfect bite, a crescendo of sweet and cold, a momentary bliss untainted by the heaviness of a full dessert. Bananas were harvested in staggering quantities from newly deforested jungles, dairy farms expanded exponentially, and the air perpetually smelled of warm fudge and synthetic vanilla. The city's economy boomed, driven by the sheer logistics of production and disposal.
But the sheer volume of waste soon began to suffocate the city. The incinerators glowed a constant, angry red, spewing thick, cloying smoke that choked the brilliant blue skies. Mountains of slightly-touched banana splits rose in the landfills, a sticky, melting monument to thoughtless consumption. The jungle ecosystems collapsed, rivers ran thick with agricultural run-off, and the once-rich topsoil turned barren.
Resources grew scarce. The endless production line began to stutter as raw materials became harder to find and more expensive to import. The "perfect bite" started tasting bitter—bitter with the acrid smoke, bitter with the guilt of the wasted food, bitter with the growing emptiness of the world around them.
The cautionary tale reached its climax when the final banana was harvested, the last drop of cream milked, the last nut sprinkled. The city, once vibrant and rich, fell silent. There were no more banana splits, not even for a single, "perfect" bite. The people were left with nothing but the memory of a momentary pleasure and the vast, despoiled landscape they had created—a stark, empty testament to the price of taking everything for granted and discarding the rest. The city's ruin was a sticky, sad reminder that sustainability and moderation, not endless exploitation, were the only true path to a lasting feast.
That's it! That's the story I remembered from my childhood! Great job, AI OVERVIEW, for once!
But here's the problem...
Nowhere was there any credit to where this story was sourced. The other "normal" results listed under this on the Google search results page were all over the place and had nothing to do with anything. No author, no date of publication, nothing. It was as if the AI was taking credit for using my search phrase and "creating" the story on its own. But that's BULLSHIT since I know that this is the story I was either read or read myself back around the time the movie 2001:A Space Odyssey came out when the only AI was HAL 9000 and he was a psychotic motherfucker!
I then searched "Banana Split Protocol" since the story displayed it in quotes, thinking it alluded to the title of it, but nothing. Just nonsense results.
I searched the first line: "In a shimmering metropolis built on the principles of immediate gratification..." nothing pointing to what might be the first line of text of a children's book that would have been recorded in the Library of Congress database. You'd figure, right? I mean, if I Google, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." what do you think I'd get? Right, you know it. Even AI OVERVIEW gets that attributed correctly. It'd be hard to plagiarize Dickens after all wouldn't it?
So I tell you a new tale, kiddies, about the powers that be and their "Great Wizard, AI" Don't believe that everything it passes off as its own is really its own. It may be just outright fucking lying to you. So now you have to ask yourselves...WHY? Go ahead and munch on that, with whipped cream and a cherry on top!