january 26, 2023
carillonregina.com | the carillon | 11
op-ed
The beauty of abandoned Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan youth go exploring history kate sveinbjornson staff writer “My grandpa’s homestead was located about a few kilometres from our current place. I can remember Dad taking me there, and telling me stories of how they used to farm when he was a kid. It was an amazing reminder of how far we’ve advanced in our farming practices and technology, as well as where our roots started. Grandpa always said ‘take care of the land and the land will take care of you,’” wrote an anonymous farmer. The countryside of Saskatchewan is often described as a flat, yellow sea of canola; a quiet place where you can see your dog running away for two days. It’s likely that if you’ve lived here for a while, this fact is nothing new. Although there’s one thing that often breaks up these oceans of yellow: abandoned homesteads, churches, and schools. So, why are there so many abandoned buildings in Saskatchewan? There are many stories to answer this question, and it all depends on the age of the property. Some are left because the economy dried up, others because their owners moved to better houses in the city or on their farm, the possibilities are endless. Many of them simply have no value in the
housing market due to quality or location, and it’s easier to let them sit abandoned. Due to people leaving their houses, churches and schools were also abandoned as the small towns dried up. To many rural people, these properties hold significant value to the local area, causing groups to band together to transform these places into historical sites. Many people living in rural Saskatchewan have dedicated their time to the upkeep of sentimental or historical abandoned property. I was able to see an example of this dedication when I had the privilege of exploring the Thingvalla church, which sits northeast of the town of Churchbridge. This church is full of history, as it is one of the few Icelandic churches in Canada. Thingvalla church was built in 1889, and is considered a unique site because of its original artifacts, such as a pump organ and original benches. Thanks to the committee of people who are willing to upkeep the church, it has transformed itself from ‘abandoned’ to a historical site. Due to the number of abandoned places around Saskatchewan, a new hobby among the Saskatchewan youth was born: abandoned and historical property exploration. The internet has made it easy to find archives of where abandoned places are
located, and exploring them is often intriguing for many people. Though unfortunately, with lots of interest comes unwanted attention for these pieces of history. “Lots of times, homesteads get abused and vandalized by strangers and become unsafe to visit. This leads to a disconnect from our history and can affect local people. These places teach people the effort and importance of agriculture. It’s sad to see.” said the farmer. So, what should people know when visiting abandoned places? When visiting a place, it’s smart to stay outside, unless you have consent from the owner. Additionally, these places may not be structurally sound, and you can risk getting hurt by going inside. Never go onto the property if there is a “no trespassing” sign. Don’t steal items or property off of the land, such as debris or pieces of the building. This is disrespectful as well as damaging to the building. Avoid putting yourself in situations where you could damage the property itself, and do not purposely vandalize anything. Do some research on the place you are visiting. Your adventure will be much more rich if you know the history, and when or why the place was abandoned. If you post pictures online about the place, it’s thoughtful to include some information about
the place so others can learn too. Although, I would recommend not sharing the exact coordinates, as to ensure the property is not widely advertised.
peek behind the curtains and see the value they carry within their walls. Next time you take a trip down the highway, keep an eye out for abandoned property – it
Everything is flat; you can see your dog run away for two days (we’ve heard that one already). Photo: Kate Sveinbjornson
Abandoned and historical sites bring a new kind of richness and history to the Saskatchewan prairies. While some may call them eyesores, it’s easy to
just may have an interesting story to tell you.
The definition of plagiarism needs to change with the times
Increasingly powerful writing tools call into question what ‘my work’ really is ChatGPT is a chatbot that writes essays and even computer code in a very similar manner to real people, which has been causing it to make headlines. Everything from email replies, coding malware, school assignments, or even using it to flirt on Tinder have been brought up as potential malicious uses.
While I do think that there is legitimate concern over some of these uses, especially when the chatbot is used to produce harmful content - the plagiarism concerns specifically - bring up an interesting question about what ‘my work’ really is. To understand this, we have to seriously consider what ‘I’ am,
I know this is supposed to be a robot, but that is how many people on campus look with all their gadgets. Image: Created with the assistance of DALL-E
and that’s not exactly simple. An easy answer that one might give is that my brain is me. However, there’s a huge amount of input and processing done elsewhere in my body. Even non-neuronal systems impact my thoughts, feelings, and actions drastically, such as the adrenaline released from my adrenal glands. Though if we’re willing to accept that the adrenaline which impacts my thinking so drastically has to be a part of me, what about the chemicals that originate from outside of my body that have similarly drastic effects on my cognition? Thinking even more abstractly, a large part of what we are is information processing. Again, the information we have and what we do with that information isn’t limited to what is solely in our brains. For example, even with simply pen and paper I can store a bunch of information externally from my brain and retrieve that information at my leisure. It’s analogous to how a computer can store information on an external hard drive. Although, once that hard drive is plugged into my laptop, is it a part of the system or separate from it? Am I the same person when I have my notes as when I don’t have my notes? Let’s bring it back to plagiarism and writing essays. Before computers, people wrote essays by hand, and used the information they had available at their
local libraries. Now, in 2023 when I’m writing an assignment, it isn’t just ‘me’ writing. To form ‘my’ ideas, I first use search engines to narrow down sources. I’ll then collate and collect these sources in a digital library that is part of a citation manager app to keep track of all the information for me. Then I start typing, and while I’m doing that, MS Word is changing my spelling, grammar, and even refining clunky phrasing. Once I’m done the assignment, my citation manager formats all the citations I’ve used and automatically organizes the bibliography of my assignment. Now, with the advent of chatbots, I’ve even added an extra step to some assignments, where I debate ChatGPT to see which of my arguments hold up to scrutiny. Sometimes I even get it to give me an initial primer on a new topic. Yet, this entire writing process is considered ‘my work’ and violates no plagiarism rules. To be clear, this writing process automizes: much of the searching that used to be done manually in libraries, a significant portion of copyediting, notetaking, referencing, formatting, and even refining my arguments. ChatGPT takes this only one step further. Now, as long as the user at the helm can come up with good prompts, edit the chatbot’s output, and make some additions here and there, much of the other work of writing could be auto-
mated as well. At some point in this succession we’ve decided that the work is no longer ‘mine,’ as if we actually understood what ‘mine’ is. I would argue that much of the reaction to this chatbot has been a result of our misunderstanding of the self. We have always been interconnected with our environment and the tools we use, and as I’ve tried to demonstrate, even our mental processes and our thoughts themselves aren’t separate. The self shouldn’t be understood as an impermeable barrier that stops at our skin, or a mind separate from a body, or a brain separate from external cognitive tools. To use the metaphor of Alan Watts, the self is like an onion; it has a multitude of layers, but no one layer is the absolute boundary. In a world where computational tools and even artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into our lives, the inadequacy and contradictions inherent in the view of ourselves as just our bodies is becoming increasingly obvious. So much so that the simple act of writing begs the question, who am I?
josh king news writer