I had a wonderfully exhilarating talk with a young person, this morning. Not younger, but actually young. Well, over 5 and NOT a family member!

For most old people young people are a distant memory and when old and young get together, there never seems to be much to talk about. Of, course there is a lot, but most young people do not want to hear about how much fun it is getting old, which is about all we know to talk about, anymore. You can see young eyes glaze over as they fight to stay awake after hearing of our lack of hearing, et. al. (Sic)

And of course, what can a young person say to an old person which doesn’t make the old person hijack the conversation to one-up the young person’s adventures? Old people have an “already-been-there-done-that” attitude towards most of what young people talk about even if some of us have sense enough to bite our tongue. Just ask us. “Why, when I was in college…”

Here’s the second best part of the whole day: Mark Cuban was on The Daily Show and talking about the AI (Artificial Intelligence for you boomers) and what AI’s going to do to the world. It was a dark, dark prognostication. But then Jon asked (with much comedic hand wringing) if there any hope for the future? Mark’s answer: “Gen Z. They know what’s going and will keep an eye on things.” What?

Mark Cuban is 66 years old. Gen Z people are aged 12-27.

If you haven’t figured it out for yourself, my conversation partner this morning is (was?) a Gen Zer. Probably right smack dab in the middle of the range. (“Smack dab”? Ugh.)

I am a realistically optimistic observer of the world who survived the end-of-the-world 1960’s, but AI scares the crap out of me. As noted on the show, major changes to the way the world works (The Industrial Revolution, The Communications Revolution, for examples) all took as long as 40 to 100 years to effectively change the world. AI may have the world changed by–as Jon Stewart put it–Thursday. Of this week.

My talk with GenZ was in the morning before The Cuban Interview and made me feel better about worldy things: the Zer was intellectually curious, cautious about what education to pursue, and never said “Like” the entire time.

Imagine how satisfying it was when Mark Cuban (He owns the NBA Mavericks!!) felt the same thing I did.

It was a good day for faith in America, and realistic optimism. I hope there’s more.