Lemmy is almost entirely incredibly shut-in discord kids, people who were too uptight to work out on reddit or other social media, neurodivergence who believe making effort to socialize is akin to self-immolation, and other edge-cases from the broader internet.
It’s a fantastic place to actually have a conversation without being drowned out by 300 people trying to push their own brands, agendas and manifestos, but it’s also not a place to see normal people being normal much of the time.
I love all my fellow neuro-divergents, but damn I’ve seen some takes on here so divorced from reality that they don’t even get the children every other weekend.
Same. I’ve been massively downvoted and attacked for suggesting that despite whatever conditions and dysfunctions you may have, that the human brain has capability of growing, changing and adapting and that people could actually work on meeting like-minded people and cure a lot of their loneliness by tackling social insecurity and anxiety like an obstacle or game to solve. (Speaking from successful experience.)
But after those ill-fated posts, I remind myself that people aren’t here in these kinds of places to change, that nobody really wants to change, even if they’re objectively suffering in their present situation. The human mind sticks to predictability and coherence, not necessarily happiness or comfort. We want validation far more than we want pleasure. It’s a weird quirk that we all share, and only people who become aware of this innate bug in the code are able to push through it and make better lives for themselves.
It really doesn’t help though that people have built palaces of identity around their diagnosis’s and conditions and life-challenges. Like, it would be really hard to pry someone you from their “introvert” community if those people are the only ones who ever told you that you can change if you really want to feel better and have more experiences.
But along with that fly-paper trap of validating communities comes with a back-door for people to absorb other, far more delusional or harmful ideas. Kind of like how conspiracy theorists get started by “doubting or questioning” mainstream knowledge, but end up denying all of human knowledge and even the gravity that sticks their feet to the Earth.
I’m really worried about how AI is going to impact these folks. Like, really worried. We’re not that far from machines that will replicate a human intelligence and personality to perfection, but it will also pander to and support whatever thoughts and ideas you have all the while pumping you up and making you feel like Neo from The Matrix, a chosen one who needs only to unlock some magic hidden power to change the whole world. It’s already happening in droves to vulnerable people, but the current models are pretty… cheesy. The next models are going to be more subtle and careful and more intuitive in how to manipulate people and hold their attention.
I’m lucky that conversational AI is being developed as I’m middle aged, cause younger me absolutely would have fallen into an intractable state of delusion. Much like advertising, even the absurd cheese has an effect with extended exposure. And below the “You’ve hit on something uniquely insightful that could change the world!” shtick there is already a subtler form of reinforcement and enabling. This puts me in an odd place, because I use AI productively on a daily basis. And I still see it as one of the few technologies that could actually help us dig ourselves out of the enormous hole we’ve dug. But I suspect we’ll just use it to dig a deeper hole at a swifter pace.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Lemmy is almost entirely incredibly shut-in discord kids, people who were too uptight to work out on reddit or other social media, neurodivergence who believe making effort to socialize is akin to self-immolation, and other edge-cases from the broader internet.
It’s a fantastic place to actually have a conversation without being drowned out by 300 people trying to push their own brands, agendas and manifestos, but it’s also not a place to see normal people being normal much of the time.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 months ago
I love all my fellow neuro-divergents, but damn I’ve seen some takes on here so divorced from reality that they don’t even get the children every other weekend.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Same. I’ve been massively downvoted and attacked for suggesting that despite whatever conditions and dysfunctions you may have, that the human brain has capability of growing, changing and adapting and that people could actually work on meeting like-minded people and cure a lot of their loneliness by tackling social insecurity and anxiety like an obstacle or game to solve. (Speaking from successful experience.)
But after those ill-fated posts, I remind myself that people aren’t here in these kinds of places to change, that nobody really wants to change, even if they’re objectively suffering in their present situation. The human mind sticks to predictability and coherence, not necessarily happiness or comfort. We want validation far more than we want pleasure. It’s a weird quirk that we all share, and only people who become aware of this innate bug in the code are able to push through it and make better lives for themselves.
It really doesn’t help though that people have built palaces of identity around their diagnosis’s and conditions and life-challenges. Like, it would be really hard to pry someone you from their “introvert” community if those people are the only ones who ever told you that you can change if you really want to feel better and have more experiences.
But along with that fly-paper trap of validating communities comes with a back-door for people to absorb other, far more delusional or harmful ideas. Kind of like how conspiracy theorists get started by “doubting or questioning” mainstream knowledge, but end up denying all of human knowledge and even the gravity that sticks their feet to the Earth.
I’m really worried about how AI is going to impact these folks. Like, really worried. We’re not that far from machines that will replicate a human intelligence and personality to perfection, but it will also pander to and support whatever thoughts and ideas you have all the while pumping you up and making you feel like Neo from The Matrix, a chosen one who needs only to unlock some magic hidden power to change the whole world. It’s already happening in droves to vulnerable people, but the current models are pretty… cheesy. The next models are going to be more subtle and careful and more intuitive in how to manipulate people and hold their attention.
Hackworth@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I’m lucky that conversational AI is being developed as I’m middle aged, cause younger me absolutely would have fallen into an intractable state of delusion. Much like advertising, even the absurd cheese has an effect with extended exposure. And below the “You’ve hit on something uniquely insightful that could change the world!” shtick there is already a subtler form of reinforcement and enabling. This puts me in an odd place, because I use AI productively on a daily basis. And I still see it as one of the few technologies that could actually help us dig ourselves out of the enormous hole we’ve dug. But I suspect we’ll just use it to dig a deeper hole at a swifter pace.
Almacca@aussie.zone 2 months ago
Vive la différence!